OAK PARK, Mich. – The Local 4 Defenders have obtained exclusive new video of an unusual police chase that took place in Oak Park last November.
The footage is unusual because police were chasing after one of their own cars, which was stolen right off the street at a crime scene with a drunken driving suspect handcuffed in the back seat.
The woman in the back seat was Shanae Hunter, 27, who said it was a night she'll never forget. She had just been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving when a complete stranger jumped in the patrol car and took off.
Police said it took a dangerous high-speed chase to rescue Hunter. Video shows Hunter crying for help as the stranger stole the car she was in.
You can watch the exclusive dashcam video of the chase at the top of the page.
Video shows the chase going down busy roads and reaching speeds over 80 mph. The driver sped through stop signs and crashed into two cars.
"I was in the back seat, handcuffed, flying from window to window," Hunter said.
With every turn of the car, Hunter said she was slammed, bumped and bruised.
"I couldn't have my hands restrain me from hitting the window and the dashboard," she said. "I'm sliding from door to door, window to window."
Her mother said she could have been killed.
"I'm glad to have her with me today because I could have had a funeral, but I'm glad she's here," her mother said.
Hunter was off to the side of the road with a flat tire when Oak Park police pulled up to help. They suspected she was drinking and put her through several sobriety tests.
They noticed Dujuan Rollins lurking around, so an officer escorted him away from the scene. But as Hunter was sitting in the back seat after being arrested, and police went through her car, Rollins jumped in the police car, slowly pulled up to the officers and sped off.
"I asked him what was he doing?" Hunter said. "He said he was trying to save me, the police were trying to kill me."
After fleeing for several miles at high speeds, Rollins found himself at a dead-end street. Police arrested him without incident.
Hunter's calls for help were answered as her attorney said she learned a lesson about drinking and driving. He said police need to learn a lesson too.
"Now this guy was saying, 'I'm trying to save you. These cops are going to kill you,'" Nick Bennett said. "But in reality, these cops should have been protecting Ms. Hunter from a man like this since she was in their custody."
Hunter said she has decided to file a lawsuit in hopes that policies will be changed statewide to require police in traffic stops to stay with a suspect once they've been arrested and placed in handcuffs.
Rollins is still behind bars in the Oakland County Jail as he waits to go to trial on a multitude of criminal charges.