ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. – Video showing the chase and arrest of the man suspected of kidnapping and killing Wynter Cole Smith revealed what was said as officers struggled with him and realized the 2-year-old girl wasn’t in the car.
Wynter was abducted the night of July 2, just before midnight. Police believed she had been taken by Rashad Maleek Trice, who went to her home and attacked her mother. Trice took off in the mother’s car, and Wynter was nowhere to be found, according to authorities.
An Amber Alert was issued in the early hours of the morning, and St. Clair Shores police spotted the stolen car. Trice was taken into custody after fleeing and crashing into a cop car.
Local 4 obtained exclusive video of the chase, crash, and arrest. Click here to watch that video.
Here’s everything that was said throughout the exchange.
Police chase
Dash cam footage from a St. Clair Shores police car shows officers trying to catch up with the fleeing Chevrolet Impala.
Some of the audio is hard to make out due to the sirens and the engine, but there are points in the video when the officers can be heard clearly.
Officer: “I’m trying to get that plate. He just blew a red light at 11.”
They followed the Impala north on Harper Avenue until it did a U-turn and sped off in the other direction.
Officer: “Back southbound, back southbound. He just tried to swerve at the (police) car behind us.”
Police confirmed that the license plate matched the one from the Amber Alert.
Officer: “First three of the plate we believe are EJR.”
Officer: “Southbound from 11 (Mile Road).”
Officer: “107 (mph).”
Officer: “The (license plate number from the be on the lookout) I have is EJR 6098.”
Officer: “Speeds of 110, left travel lane.”
Officer: “Right lane, slowing down at 10 (Mile Road). Slowing down at 10. Turned on 10.”
Officer: “Westbound 10 coming up to Little Mack, speeds are 80. Northbound on Little Mack from 10.”
Officer: “6098 -- yep, that’s it.”
Arrest at crash scene
At this point, Trice tried to U-turn and crashed into another cop car. Officers got out with their weapons drawn.
Officers: “Hands, hands, hands up.”
Officer (to dispatch): “We’ve got a crash -- we’ve got him at gunpoint. This is the vehicle.”
Officer: “Get your f------ hands up.”
An officer smashed the window of the driver’s door. Trice reached out toward the officer’s gun.
Officer: “Hey, do not grab my f------ gun.”
Officer: “Tase him, tase him.”
Officer: “Coming around. Keep them on him.”
Trice could be heard yelling as officers opened his door.
Officer: “Hey, hey, don’t move, don’t move, don’t move. Don’t f------ move.”
Officers pulled Trice out of the car and onto the ground.
Officer: “Don’t move, alright? Do not move. You will get shot.”
Officer: “Give me your hands. Give me your hands. Put your hands out now.”
Officer: “Grab his hands. He has something in his hands.”
Trice: “No I don’t. No I don’t.”
Officer: “Get that hand out. Do not move. You’re gonna get tased.”
Officer: “I got his left.”
Officer: “I got cuffs.”
Officer: “Get your f------ hand behind your back, now.”
Officer: “Ready? Yep. We’re good. I’m moving my leg.”
Officer: “Yep.”
Trice was placed in handcuffs. Body cam footage showed several officers standing around him.
Search for Wynter
The officer wearing the body cam looked in the Impala with a flashlight. There was a car seat in the back, but Wynter wasn’t inside.
Officer: “I’m not seeing a child in the back seat right now.”
Officer: “Hey pop that trunk.”
Officer: “Where’s the baby?”
Trice: “She’s in Lansing, with her mom. I took off in Lansing.”
The trunk was empty, except for some pillows.
Officer: “What’s your name?”
Trice: “Rashad Trice.”
Officer: “Rashad Trice? What’s the name from that BOL? Rashad Trice?”
Officer: “Yep.”
Officer: “Alright, just put him in the car.”
Officer: “In ours?”
Officer: “Yep, put him in ours.”
Waiting for medical attention
Officer: “C’mon.”
An officer tried to move Trice toward the patrol car.
Officer: “We’ll have fire check you out.”
Trice refused to walk with the officer.
Officer: “You just walked over here.”
Officer: “You know what, he’s bleeding.”
Trice: “Bad.”
Officer: “Just have him sit against the car.”
Officer: “The curb right here?”
Officer: “Yeah, that’s fine.”
Officer: “Over here. With me, this way. Just walk with me.”
Trice: “Y’all just tased me about five times, though.”
Officer: “Yeah, well, you were fighting. Walk. Let’s go. Walk.”
Officer: “C’mon. Dude, c’mon.”
Officer: “Nick, hold on. Hold on.”
Trice: “You’re making my hip hurt. You don’t see it?”
Officer: “It’s fine, we’re getting medical.”
Trice: “What do you mean, ‘It’s fine’?”
Officer: “They’re coming, dude.”
Officer: “What’s wrong with you?”
Officer: “Where are you cut?”
Officer: “Right there.”
Officer: “OK, they’re gonna come check you out. Just walk him over here. He can have a seat on the curb. He can get checked and then he can get in the squad car. This way. Just sit down right over here, OK? Have a seat.”
Officer: “Can you sit?”
Trice: “I can’t sit. I’ll stand up. I ain’t going nowhere.”
Officer (to dispatch): “One officer to check out, one suspect to check out.”
Officer: “You can sit. Sit.”
Trice: “I can’t sit. I’m standing up, man.”
Officer: “Sit down.”
Trice: “I can’t sit down.”
Officer: “Sit.”
The two officers pulled Trice down into a sitting position on the grass, right at the edge of a curb.
Trice: “If y’all had a son y’all would do that to him?”
Officer: “Huh?”
Trice: “If you had a son, you would do this to him?”
Officer: “Do what?”
Trice: “What you’re doing to me.”
Officer: “You’re the one not cooperating, fella.”
Trice: “I just told you I’ll stand up until the ambulance comes.”
Officer: “Well, I’m telling you you’re not standing.”
Trice: “Y’all got this s--- surrounded already. There’s nothing I can do. What can I do with my hands? Break the handcuffs?”
Officer: “No, you’re not going to break the handcuffs.”
Trice: “Exactly, so where am I going to go? My hand is broken, my hip is broken.”
Officer: “Fire department’s coming to check you out, dude. It’s just gonna take a minute to wake up and get here, OK? He’s bleeding from his eye, here, and he’s bleeding from his hip.”
Trice: “And my finger.”
Officer: “Your finger, too? OK.”
Investigation continues
Officer: “We’ve already searched that car?”
Officer: “No, not yet.”
Officer: “Let’s -- we should probably get ahold of Lansing, too. Find out what exactly they want done with it, right?”
The officer walked over to brief the sergeant , who had arrived at the scene.
Officer: “You’ll see Eley’s car. We pursued him, obviously. He spun around here. He swerved it ... he was veering toward the oncoming police car. So he swerved to the left, Eley came up, smoked him on the side, because Eley was coming this way. He spun around right here on the grass, started taking off at a high rate of speed again, southbound. So he and Eley were coming this way. He veered this way, Eley hit him this way, so there’s no way Eley could have avoided that.
“He swerved at one of our patrol cars on Harper, trying to run them off the road as he was passing this way. He refused to get out of the car, we had to bust out the window. He tried to grab Eastpointe’s gun. Eley tasered him twice. He again wouldn’t get out of the car. Once I holstered up and grabbed him, he wouldn’t get out of the car. Eley tasered him a third time. Had to hit him a fourth time. Got him out, got him cuffed.”
Sergeant: “Two people in the car?”
Officer: “One. Just him.”
Sergeant: “No child?”
Officer: “No child. So, Eley’s was unavoidable. He did try to hit another one of our cars. Eley is over here. The suspect’s here waiting on the right. He’s going to have to end up going to the hospital, I’m sure.”
Eley: “Yeah I just cut my wrist up a little bit, and then the airbag hit me square on in the face, shot my neck back into the seat.”
Sergeant: “Seatbelt was on?”
Eley: “Yeah, seatbelt was on.”
Officer: “You should go to the hospital and get checked out.”
Sergeant: “Yeah, and I want someone to go with him.”
Eley: “I’m just getting all my stuff out of the car.”
Officer: “Dispatch, have we reached out to Lansing yet?”
Dispatch: “Negative, have not had a moment yet.”
Officer: “I understand. When you have a chance, if you could please reach out. Let them know we have the vehicle, we have the subject in custody, no child.”
Both officers walked over to Trice.
Sergeant: “You swerved at my freaking officers, trying to hit them with a car.”
Trice: “Yeah y’all gonna kill me anyway, why not--”
Sergeant: “Whatever, shut your mouth.”
Trice: “Yeah, whatever what?”
Dispatch: “Amber Alert, missing child may be with Rashad Maleek Trice.”
Officer: “That’s who this is. That’s who this is, Mike.”
Mike: “It is confirmed?”
Officer: “He said he’s Rashad Trice. (To dispatch): He confirmed, he’s Rashad. Let’s run him real quick. Pull up his picture, just confirm the picture for me.”
Dispatch: “Rashad Trice is the suspect.”
Another officer pulled up Trice’s photo and confirmed his identity.
Officer: “Do you guys have a tech working with a decent camera to take some photos, by any chance?”
Eastpointe officer: “Yep, I got good pictures. I haven’t taken a picture of him or his injuries or anything. You want me to do that?”
Officer: “Yeah, let’s do that, and then can we snap a couple of our officer, too? And then, if you don’t mind, our car, with it busted up the way it is. If you’re good with that. We don’t have a tech in. Thank you for the help, we appreciate it.”
The officer wearing the body cam footage started to explain how the chase began.
Officer: “We were pulling on Harper, I just happened to see this f------ white Impala, I’m, like, ‘There’s no way, if they’re putting it out down there.’ Then he saw us and f------ took off.”
Talking to Trice
Officer: “Other than being involved in a decent car accident, are you OK?”
Trice: “No, I’m not OK.”
Officer: “Your eyes hurt. Your hips hurt. We’re going to get your treatment. We’re going to get you to the hospital to get looked at, OK? Fair enough?”
Trice: “Does it look like I’m going to be OK?”
Officer: “I think you will be. You’ve got a long road ahead of you.”
Trice: “Yeah I know, tell me about it.”
Officer: “But you’ll be OK.”
Trice: “I’ll probably do the rest of my life in prison.”
Officer: “I can’t say so.”
Trice: “I can tell you now.”
Officer: “That injury on your chest: It’s from..?”
Trice: “Whatever it is that happened.”
Officer: “The crash?”
Officer: “You were in a crash and tasers were deployed against you.”
Officer: “Was it you who was northbound on Harper that he tried to swerve at?”
Officer: “No. No, I think that was probably one of the Eastpointe cars, would be my guess.”
Firefighters walked over to treat Trice’s injuries.
Firefighter: “Taser prongs?”
Officer: “Yeah, he’s got several taser prongs in his back.”
Firefighter: “OK, I got you.”
Officer: “He got tasered several times.”
Firefighter: “If we were to help you up, do you feel like you could take a couple steps and sit down?”
Trice: “Mmhmm.”
Firefighter: “Alright, you hurt on your arms?”
Trice was helped up and moved onto a stretcher.
Officer: “I think (the sergeant) wants two to go with him to the hospital, so it’ll probably be one of us, and then, I don’t know if you mind?”
Officer: “Yeah my car’s down there.”
Officer: “OK, just standby with him for now.”
Sergeant: “I want two to go with him. Yeah, he’s in custody, and obviously he wants to die because he’s telling everyone to kill him.”
The officer walked over to two others. One of the other officers was talking about the chase.
Officer: “I was telling him: I probably should have waited to turn my lights on, or turned them off. I think he saw my lights as I was approaching. That’s probably why he went down 10 at Little Mack, because I was on Harper coming head-on with you guys. It worked out. Glad you guys are safe.”
Officer: “It did.”
You can watch the full video here: