Narcotics Officer Steve Smith.
Nothing tells the story of the unpredictability faced by the agents of law enforcement quite like an incident on Monday evening.
However, it was at the intersection of good police work and good fortune that a good outcome occurred for a 7-month-old baby and his parents in the early evening hours.
Officer Steve Smith and his teammates in a narcotics unit — James Fields, William Snow, Dwayne Lee, Daniel Villeneuve, and Corrie Barron, led by Sgt. Juan Frias — were doing what they typically do, surveilling, in this case an apartment complex near Interstate 35W, just north of the central city. The team, all in unmarked cars, was taking a look at a man it believes is poisoning neighborhoods as an underworld dealer in illicit drugs.
The days can be long, oftentimes as many as 15 hours or more a day, depending on what they might be working on.
Well, while out scouting on this case, Smith noticed on his laptop a dispatched call on what was initially termed a “kidnapping.”
A lady had stopped by a friend's house to retrieve an item she had mistakenly left behind. She apparently left the car running with her 7-month-old in the back seat. Witnesses say that a passerby, a gentleman, got off the bicycle he was riding, jumped in and absconded with her BMW.
“It was a combination of a lot of great police work by a lot of people,” says Smith, a Fort Worth native and graduate of Western Hills High School. “It's possible that those patrol vehicles flooding the neighborhood pushed him right to me. I just happened to come across the car. It was good police work by everybody out there.
“When you start looking at how everything lined up to be able to find the car, to be able to have the right people talking to him. The fact he didn't ask for an attorney. I mean, all those things factored into finding the kid and so all those lining up, it feels like God was looking down and said, ‘hey, put the right people in the right places to get it done' because a modification of any one of those things could have been detrimental.”
It all started with the narcotics unit simply wanting “go up there and help the guys out,” thinking its covert manner of operating could be of assistance.
When they arrived at the scene, there were upwards of 30 or more patrol units looking for the car. They were exploring options, such as pinging the victim’s phone and using all the possible technology available to locate cars. As an example, devices inside newer model cars that alert lien holders to the location of a car if the loan holder isn’t making payments.
The mother, as one would expect, was overwrought with emotion.
The baby boy was found in the area circled.
Was there an underlying circumstance, such as a child custody dispute, at play, or was this something more sinister that was not going to end well?
“We have a lot of experience on the team. So, everybody started to kind of do their own thing, and each of us started thinking, ‘What would you do if you're the bad guy?’”
Smith’s first thought was to go to the victim’s home, particularly if it were in fact a custody case or if the perpetrator knew the victim, whose address had just come across the call sheet.
“Maybe the guy took the kid, maybe he's digging through the deal … maybe he decides, ‘Hey, I'm gonna abandon the car at the house where I think, you know, the kid belongs.”
Three blocks from the address, sure enough, here comes a BMW, the BMW, which Smith confirmed through a license plate match. It was neither of the things Smith thought of when he decided to go by there. Rather, it was simply a fluke or by the staff that is the hand of providence perhaps that the driver took that turn.
But it was at this point, about an hour after a distraught mother called police to report her car and precious cargo stolen, that Smith began his silent, undercover pursuit of 25-year-old Elliott Reyes.
Ordinarily, Air One, the police helicopter, would’ve been called in to follow the car. Whenever Reyes got out, the police could nab him. However, Air One was down for maintenance.
This wasn’t after all a typical chase, if there is such a thing. There was a baby on board.
Smith’s narcotics team, spread out, each doing their own thing to find the car, began collaborating by radio: How are we to get this guy boxed in?
In police work, they’ll tell you, you can hatch the most perfect plan, but it’ll likely go awry because of circumstance. There are many cases in which a high-speed chase is not worth the risk to the public, but there are other tactics, like four cars boxing in the suspect.
As the pursuit went on, with Smith still the only car in pursuit, Reyes pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store. Smith surmises that Reyes saw two police cars in front, stopped at what appeared to be another call. Whatever the case, Reyes pulled into a convenience store parking lot and Smith followed in. Smith also figured that Reyes might have noticed he was being followed.
Whatever the case, it was decision time.
Smith decided to act. He pulled in behind Reyes and bumped the BMW, so that the car was wedged between Smith’s car in the back and a pole in the front. Smith ran to the driver’s side, where a compliant Reyes was already getting out of the car.
However, there was no baby in the car. And no sign of him.
You need to tell us where that baby is.
“He immediately says,” Smith recalls, “‘I just got this car and the baby’s in the creek bed.’”
By this time patrol Officer Davis and Sgt. Ronnie Chau had arrived on scene.
“We’re like ‘Where is that?’” Smith says. “We quickly get him handcuffed and start shoving him toward a patrol car.”
Inside Davis’ patrol car, with Chau in a car close behind, Reyes took the officers to an isolated area at the intersection of Runnels and NE 36th streets in Diamond Hill.
“We came at the dead-end location,” says Chau, “We're looking at this creek area behind. We see a sidewalk and we see a creek. I'm looking through the creek and this time it's about 8:20ish. So, it's getting dark.
“We're using a flashlight to see if we can see anything. I'm on one side, then I switch [the flashlight] over to the other side. That's when I saw the baby carrier.”
Chau ran to the baby, who instantly began crying when the sergeant picked him up.
EMTs were dispatched and determined the baby healthy and unharmed. He was reunited with two very relieved parents.
By all appearances, Chau says, it looks as if the baby seat was “just tossed” over the barrier from the road.
Reyes, who has a history of run-ins with authorities, is in trouble. He was initially booked into the Tarrant County Jail on charges of burglary of a building, theft of property, and abandonment and endangering a child. His bond was set at $68,000.
On Thursday, he was also charged with kidnapping and attempted capital murder of a child under 10 years old.
"I know I speak for a grateful community and family affected by this incident in thanking the men and women of the Fort Worth Police Department," said District 2 Councilman Carlos Flores. "As a public service announcement, please remember: Do not let your vehicle running and unattended."
