Newly released video footage shows an Iowa police officer clinging to the roof of a car before being flung off while trying to arrest a man wanted on outstanding warrants.
The incident happened in March 2021 when a Carroll police officer spotted Dennis Guider Jr.—an Illinois man wanted on an arrest warrant in a forgery case—in the passenger seat of a car at a restaurant drive-through, the Des Moines Register reports. Officer Patrick McCarty stopped the vehicle and asked Guider to get out of the car because he was facing arrest.
That's when Guider pushed out the woman in the driving the car and took control of the vehicle. McCarty stepped on the bumper of the car, drew his weapon and order Guider to stop.
But Guider kept slowly driving, and McCarty got up on the hood of the car, gun pointed at Guider.
"Stop the car, man! Stop the car!" McCarty is heard saying in body camera footage.
Guider kept driving as McCarty holster his gun and hung on. Other officers had responded to the scene and a short chase ensued, with Guider reaching up to 50 mph as McCarty clung to the roof.
Guider drove into a ditch, sending McCarty flying off the car. The officer suffered a broken vertebra in his back from the fall.
The chase briefly continued for about another mile until Guider's vehicle finally broke down. Guider, 29, pleaded guilty to felony serious injury by vehicle and was sentenced in March to up to five years in prison.
Guider's public defender argued that the court should be lenient because McCarty broke with training when he stepped in front of the vehicle with his weapon pointed. Police Chief Brad Burke admitted that McCarty “in the heat of the moment made a lapse in judgment in an attempt to apprehend the suspect."
"This is a training point that is used for all the officers going forward from the incident," he added.
McCarty has recovered from his injury and has returned to work.
