Running from the cops isn’t a great idea, especially if they’re riding atop a four-legged animal known for its running skills.
That didn’t stop 42-year-old Joseph Ramirez from hoofing it after an encounter with the Lubbock County Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Unit.
According to KCBD, Ramirez was spotted by two horse-riding officers walking in the middle of the road instead of on the sidewalk. They observed him acting suspiciously and asked to check his pockets. When he refused, one of the officers, who, befitting of a mounted policeman, is named William Trotter, decided he was going to “make a joke.”
“It seemed like it was going to break some tension,” Trotter says. “You know, it seemed like it was kind of stiff for a second there.”
So, Trotter told Ramirez that his animal companion was a “narcotics-sniffing” horse. That spooked the suspect, who decided to take off. Ramirez was then chased down and apprehended. He was arrested for evading arrest and tampering with physical evidence with the intent to impair.
“A lot of people that have come before us on Mounted Patrol have been in a foot chase,” Trotter says. “Somebody is silly enough to eventually run from a horse. I don’t know why it happens – we are going to outrun them.”