Latest / FBI Files / 100 Officers, 3 Days, One Wyoming Rancher: How the Charles Moses Manhunt Ended

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100 Officers, 3 Days, One Wyoming Rancher: How the Charles Moses Manhunt Ended · FBI Files

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: In the Midwest, a fugitive drug dealer will do anything
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to avoid capture. His desperate run is fueled by drugs
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and punctuated by gunfights. As he barrels across two states,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: local and federal authorities are determined to fight back and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to stay in pursuit.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: When law enforcement officers become targets, no one is safe.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: So when a crystal meth dealer on the run from
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: the law began shooting cops, it took more than police
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to stop him. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: FBI's New York office. With a fearless killer on the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: loose in the Midwest, residents have to help the FBI
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and state and local police bring down the dealer and
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: deliver him to justice.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: On February 2nd, 2000, on the quiet back roads of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Lincoln County, Nebraska, Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Stan McKnight was
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: on routine patrol when he saw a vehicle rapidly approach
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: from behind. A maroon pickup truck sped past. McKnight spotted
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Texas plates in the pickup, but he could not make
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: out the numbers. the deputy began cautious pursuit. Recent weather
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: conditions had created black ice in the roads. Without the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: benefit of street lights, the roads appeared normal, but were
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: treacherously covered with patches of slick ice.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: The subject is now turning.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Off on the side road. Deputy McKnight radioed for assistance.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Please alert all available units.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Several Nebraska State Patrol troopers mobilized to try to intercept
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the pickup. Whoever was in the truck seemed to have
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: no regard.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: To his own safety.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Since the roads were free of other traffic and no
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: one else was in danger, McKnight decided high-speed pursuit was
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: not worth the risk.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: It appeared as though he knew the area that he
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: was in and knew the fact that he would take
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: more chances and drive faster than I would he was
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: able to disappear.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Eventually, the truck vanished into the night.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I had called in for assistance from the department and
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: all the deputies and state troopers were working and we
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: combed the whole area looking for that vehicle and it
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: was to no avail.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Nebraska police issued a be on the lookout bulletin for
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the maroon pickup with Texas plates.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: But that night, no one spotted the vehicle or its driver.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: A week later, and 40 miles away in North Platte, Nebraska,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: deputies responded to a call from a farmer. He hadn't
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: used his barn in years. So the farmer was surprised
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: to discover someone had been working there recently, leaving a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: strange workplace behind. The deputies found chemicals and other items
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: available in farm supply stores. They'd often seen this combination
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of materials.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: In the area before.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: They were the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine an illegal drug.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: A powerful stimulant, meth is also known as crank or speed.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: It's easy to make with materials commonly found on farms.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: In recent years, the Midwestern countryside has seen an epidemic
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of methamphetamine production, according to Lincoln County, Nebraska Sheriff's Corporal
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Casey Nelms.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: Methamphetamine labs are a problem because it's such a rural area,
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: a lot of abandoned farmhouses, farmsteads where people don't live
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: anymore gives opportunity for for these people to go in
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: and manufacture this drug pretty much undetected.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: The drug is addictive and extremely dangerous.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Users feel a temporary high, then intense paranoia and a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: craving for more.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Most users become aggressive and desperate. When meth labs pop
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: up in an area, violent crime follows.
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: This may be our man.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: During their search of the meth lab in the North
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Platte barn.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Deputies found several pieces of mail. They were addressed to
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Charles Moses Jr.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Of Nakona, Texas.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Deputies contacted Texas authorities asking for information on Moses. They
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: received photos of Moses and learned there were warrants for
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: his arrest for the theft of several firearms. Nebraska investigators
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: also learned Moses drove a maroon pickup truck with Texas plates.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: The make and model of the truck matched the description
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: of the one that had evaded Deputy McKnight only a
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: week earlier.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: If Charles Moses was manufacturing methamphetamine, there was a good
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: chance he was using it too. That might explain why
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Moses drove so recklessly on the night of the chase.
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: The people that use this become very paranoid. They have
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: no pain thresholds. Sometimes they're up for days. And they're
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: just a real problem.
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: They're hard to handle.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: During their rounds in the tightly knit communities in the area,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: police showed the photo of Moses and asked if anyone
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: had noticed an outsider fitting his descriptions. Some residents reported
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: seeing him in the past.
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: We were pretty sure that he was in the area.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: But no one had seen him in several days, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Moses had no local address.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: At 11 p.m.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: On February 12, 2000, a week after the meth lab
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: was discovered, Lincoln County Corporal Casey Nelms was about to
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: start his shift. As was his routine, he picked up
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: a cup of coffee before hitting the road. But that
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: night would prove to be anything but routine. Through the window,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Nelm spotted a vehicle that matched the description of Charles Moses.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Pickup truck.
• 7:38
  Speaker 7: Oh, good night. You too.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: But he needed to get a look at the driver.
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: When he got out of the pickup.
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: He resembled the individual that we were looking for.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: The truck had Texas plates.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: 7 to 1-6, 10-89.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Nelms headed out to check the man's ID. But the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: man spoke first.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: What are the roads like out there?
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: Pretty slick. Where are you heading?
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Uh, just.
• 8:20
  Speaker 9: He's kind of heading out.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: He's going out.
• 8:26
  Speaker 7: I approached him and asked him where he was going
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: and what he was doing.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: I asked him for his identification, and when he handed
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: it to me, the name on the driver's license was
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: Charles Moses.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You're under arrest.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: I really expected that once I got a hold of
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: him in the vehicle that I was going to be
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: able to, you know... take him out of the vehicle
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: without any problem and place him under arrest, but he
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: was just spectacularly strong. I just couldn't do anything with him,
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: except just keep struggling with him to try to keep
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: the weapon away from my face.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I was pretty sure two of my rounds hit.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: The second round I saw, it hit the back of
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: the cab, and the third round it also hit the
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: back of the cab.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Nels tried to follow Moses, but the fugitive drove with
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the recklessness of a man on methamphetamine and disappeared. Nebraska
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: State Patrol officers heard the shots fired call and joined
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the search for the would-be cop killer. Lincoln County Sheriff's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Deputy Stan McKnight, who had chased the maroon truck before,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: heard about the pursuit on the radio. He needed to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: position himself. himself in a place where he was likely
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to intercept Moses.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: There's an area that's commonly called the correction line. It's
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: an area where I could see the best I thought
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: possible three different roads intersecting that area.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: And that was the middle one.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I could watch a mile behind me, that one, and
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: a mile in front of me.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: McKnight waited in the dark, hoping he was in the
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: right place.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: After about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there, a
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: vehicle did come from the west at the very road
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: intersection that I was at. And as they got right
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: to the front of my vehicle, I turned my headlights
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: on and I saw the vehicle that was the same
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: identical vehicle that I'd seen less than two weeks before.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: He was traveling in excess of 70 to 80 mile
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: an hour, and being nighttime conditions, it was hard to
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: see him, and he was out of distance to me
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: quite rapidly.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Deputy McKnight tried to maintain a visual on the pickup truck.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: But the vehicle seemed to disappear yet again.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: McKnight changed tactics.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: At that point, he had pretty much, well, got ahead
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: of me. At the same time I had to slow
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: down and check driveways and intersecting road intersections to make
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: sure he hadn't turned off on me.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Then the deputy saw a vehicle's brake lights in the distance.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It was idling at an empty intersection. Deputy McKnight called
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: for backup. Moses had already fired at one officer. It
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: was too dangerous for the deputy to advance alone. He
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: waited for the backup officers. Before they came, Moses made
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: his move. One bullet entered Stan McKnight's head. Another ripped
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: through his hand.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Upon figuring out that I'd been hit by a bullet,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: I was going to try to call to the rest
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: of the officers around to let them know what was
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: going on. Only when I reached for the mic, I
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: couldn't talk. My mouth was all full of blood and
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I was starting to choke. So I felled around and
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I found some napkins in the seat and I got
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: them shoved up in my mouth to make the blood
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: go out and I got it spit out and then
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I could talk. And let them know that I'd been
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: hit and that the subject had went on to the
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: left and was going to be chasing him.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Despite his injuries, Deputy McKnight was not going to give
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: up his pursuit.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: The wind was coming through the holes in the windshield,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: blowing glass all over. My left eye was completely shut
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: from blood. My right eye was just blinking, but I
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: could still see enough of my headlights to keep going
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: down the road.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Based on the coordinates McKnight radioed, several teams of Nebraska
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: State Patrol troopers headed towards stakeout positions in the area.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: They drove with their headlights and flashers off so they
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: wouldn't alert Moses. Troopers in two cars positioned themselves on
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a dark county road and waited.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Minutes later, headlights appeared. It was Moses. One of the
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: troopers spotted a gun. After firing a.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Full clip of Moses, the trooper realized a bullet had
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: torn through his bulletproof vest.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: He was losing blood fast.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: The chest wound appeared to be life-threatening.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: They called for an ambulance from a hospital dozens of
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: miles away.
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: In the dark prairie, The troopers hoped their fallen friend
• 15:03
  Speaker 10: would survive.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: In a frantic escape, Charles Moses had shot both a
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: sheriff's deputy and a state trooper. Though gravely injured, Deputy
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: McKnight continued pursuit of Moses, a man willing to kill
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to stay on the run. In February of 2000, Nebraska
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: authorities confronted Charles Moses, a Texas fugitive suspected of running
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a methamphetamine lab. Escaping, he led police on a high-speed chase,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: shooting one deputy in the head and a state trooper
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: in the chest before vanishing into the night. Paramedics stabilized
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the wounded trooper, then transported him to the nearest emergency room.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Helping to process the crime scene was Nebraska State Patrol
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Lynn Williams.
• 16:13
  Speaker 11: We secured the area, and then our major concern was
• 16:16
  Speaker 11: obviously the gathering of evidence. So we collected the trooper's
• 16:22
  Speaker 11: service pistol, his duty and gun belt, spent shell casings
• 16:26
  Speaker 11: that were still at the scene, We took 35-millimeter photographs,
• 16:31
  Speaker 11: videotaped the scene.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Moses had fired several bullets. One struck the cruiser's reflective seal,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: perhaps the only thing visible.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: In the dark prairie.
• 16:44
  Speaker 11: The bullet had passed through the door of the trooper's
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: patrol car, had struck the trooper in the abdomen, piercing
• 16:52
  Speaker 11: his bulletproof vest as well as traveling through his body.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: To get through that much protection, the gun Moses used
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: against police had to be a powerful one.
• 17:05
  Speaker 11: It was obvious that this was a high-powered rifle. We
• 17:09
  Speaker 11: were looking for some sort of an assault rifle, something
• 17:14
  Speaker 11: large bore, high-powered.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: The state police brought the spent rifle slugs to their
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: ballistics lab for analysis. Technicians there examined the size, weight,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and metal composition of the slugs. they determined they were
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: high velocity rounds, most likely fired from a 7.62 SKS
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: military assault rifle.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Deadly weaponry designed.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: For trained military personnel, something else entirely in the hands
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: of a criminal.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: After the multiple cop shooting, the FBI joined the effort
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: to capture Moses.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Ron Rawalt took the call at the normally
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: quiet North Platte, Nebraska, FBI resident agency.
• 18:06
  Speaker 12: Our caseload primarily is in the area of white-collar crime,
• 18:10
  Speaker 12: and it's not very common that we get called in
• 18:13
  Speaker 12: to assist in investigations of violent criminal activity.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Agent Rawalt gathered information to obtain an unlawful flight to
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: avoid prosecution warrant against Moses.
• 18:27
  Speaker 12: In this particular case, we anticipated that Moses would leave
• 18:31
  Speaker 12: the state of Nebraska after he fled his arrest and
• 18:34
  Speaker 12: that the FBI could assist in locating him.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Hoping to catch Moses before he left Nebraska, authorities set
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: up a command center at a state police barracks. Officers
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: from virtually every law enforcement agency in the state shared
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: intelligence on Moses. Several had had run-ins with him, usually
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in connection with clandestine meth labs.
• 19:02
  Speaker 11: He had a history of using abandoned farmsteads, farmplaces, not
• 19:06
  Speaker 11: only for the manufacture of methamphetamine, but for hiding and
• 19:09
  Speaker 11: living as well. So we knew that we needed to
• 19:12
  Speaker 11: be aware of this and target those areas.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: For a search.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of police vehicles across the state mobilized, with officers
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: looking for any sign of Charles Moses or his maroon
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: pickup truck. In the sprawling rural landscape, finding Moses would
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: not be easy. Investigators also hoped the public would assist
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: in the search. Media bulletins urged citizens to avoid Moses
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and to call the police if they spotted him. In
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the small town of Dickens, Nebraska, 30 miles south of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: where the two officers were shot, a young farmer found
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: tire tracks leading to a garage. His parents' car was
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: usually inside. Instead, there was a maroon pickup truck His
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: parents' car was gone. Recognizing the truck from media reports,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the farmer called police. The Nebraska State Patrol confirmed that
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the truck belonged to Charles Moses and that officers had
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: hit the vehicle when returning fire.
• 20:33
  Speaker 11: The license plate that we were looking for was still
• 20:36
  Speaker 11: displayed on the truck, which was registered to Mr. Moses.
• 20:39
  Speaker 11: It had evidence that it had been shot at with
• 20:42
  Speaker 11: a firearm. The bullet holes were in the back portion
• 20:47
  Speaker 11: of the cab. They had shattered the back window of
• 20:50
  Speaker 11: the cab. Some had lodged in the dash of the cab,
• 20:55
  Speaker 11: and some had passed out through the front windshield.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Investigators also found evidence the suspect was wounded by at
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: least one of the many shots fired.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: At the vehicle.
• 21:09
  Speaker 11: We located human blood in the cab, the interior of
• 21:12
  Speaker 11: the pickup. That led us to believe that possibly when
• 21:16
  Speaker 11: the Lincoln County deputy had fired at Moses early on
• 21:20
  Speaker 11: during the incident, that possibly he had been struck.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: But if Moses was injured, he had the perfect drug
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to stay alert, pain-free and aggressive, to keep running without sleep.
• 21:34
  Speaker 11: There was a tremendous amount of paraphernalia located in his pickup.
• 21:39
  Speaker 11: that deals with cooking or the manufacture of methamphetamine. He
• 21:43
  Speaker 11: virtually had a lab present in the back of the truck.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Investigators also found survivalist gear, police radios, and weapons in
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the truck. What they didn't find was the high-powered assault
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: rifle Moses used to shoot two police officers.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: An hour after the pickup was found, and.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: 60 miles northwest in Ogallala, Nebraska. The Nebraska State Patrol
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: responded to a call from a man who said he
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: was an acquaintance of Charles Moses. The man said he
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: had seen Moses 15 minutes earlier. Moses spoke to him
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: at a truck stop. He was in a car that
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: matched the description of the vehicle missing from the Dickens farm.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: While they talked, Moses heard a radio bulletin that said
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: police were looking.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: For the vehicle.
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: He panicked and took off.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: The man said he had waited 15 minutes to call
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: police because he was afraid at first. The dangerous fugitive
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: knew where his family lived. Police worried Moses would change
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: vehicles again to throw them off his trail. Two hours
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: after the last sighting, and 20 miles south of the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: truck stop in Paxton, Nebraska, a farmer noticed fresh tire
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: tracks outside a house on his family's farmstead, a house
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: that was closed up and unused.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: He called his family to ask if anyone had been
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: to the house.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: They hadn't, but they told him about the bulletins warning
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of a dangerous fugitive in the area. They said he
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: should leave the place immediately. A relative on the line
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: heard the farmer talking to someone. The police would soon
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: learn that Charles Moses had just claimed his first murder victim.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: The deadly fugitive was still on the run, now more
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: desperate than ever. On February 14th, 2000, 36 hours after
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: fugitive Charles Moses seriously wounded two Nebraska law enforcement officers,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: A murder investigation began in Paxton, Nebraska. The victim was
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: a local farmer, killed while talking to a relative on
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: his cell phone. The investigative team had to piece together
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the murder from crime scene clues. The circumstances indicated Charles
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Moses was involved, to Nebraska State Police Sergeant Lynn Williams.
• 24:55
  Speaker 11: We had learned that the victim had drove in the
• 24:57
  Speaker 11: abandoned farmstead to check on tire tracks that he observed.
• 25:01
  Speaker 11: We believe that he surprised Moses, and Moses reacted with
• 25:05
  Speaker 11: that surprise and shot the victim, killing him. Moses then
• 25:12
  Speaker 11: drug the victim from the victim's pickup, placed him on
• 25:16
  Speaker 11: the ground, and Moses then got back in the victim's
• 25:19
  Speaker 11: pickup and left the scene.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Troopers found tracks consistent with those on the model of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: truck the farmer drove, as well as broken glass from
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the truck on one side of the driveway. The position
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of the glass suggested the vehicle's driver's side window had
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: been blown out. FBI Special Agent Ron Rawalt knew the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: glass was an important clue.
• 25:47
  Speaker 12: I anticipated that Moses would try and use a defense
• 25:51
  Speaker 12: of self-defense. stating that he was returning fire from someone
• 25:55
  Speaker 12: shooting at him. I knew that I could determine how
• 25:59
  Speaker 12: many shots were fired and the direction that the shots
• 26:02
  Speaker 12: originated from. When a high-speed projectile hits a piece of
• 26:07
  Speaker 12: glass and the glass breaks, physical characteristics are left in
• 26:10
  Speaker 12: the glass. This answers questions for the crime scene investigator.
• 26:14
  Speaker 12: It tells them which bullet hit first and the direction
• 26:18
  Speaker 12: of travel of the bullet.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: The glass would be examined later in the lab. Behind
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a barn property, investigators found the stolen car that Moses
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: was last seen driving. The car seemed hastily abandoned. In
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the back seat, troopers found chemicals, knives, and several firearms.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: It appeared that Moses had switched vehicles after he heard
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a radio report that police were looking for this car.
• 26:54
  Speaker 11: It was very obvious that Mr. Moses had been attempting
• 26:57
  Speaker 11: to hide or camouflage, conceal the vehicle. It had a
• 27:01
  Speaker 11: tarp over it, and Moses was in the process of
• 27:04
  Speaker 11: covering the vehicle with broken and dead branches, tree branches,
• 27:09
  Speaker 11: and that sort of stuff.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Investigators found the victim's identifications. but they couldn't find the
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: cell phone he was using when he was murdered. They
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: believe Moses had the phone with him in the farmer's
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: blue pickup truck. They issued an APB for the vehicle
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and contacted cell phone companies to begin tracking the cell
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: phone signal. While powered on, cell phones are constantly in
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: search of the nearest tower to be ready for use.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Police can flag a specific phone number and learn which
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: tower is serving it. Two hours after the farmer's murder
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: was discovered, a cell phone tower in Oshkosh, Nebraska, picked
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: up the signal from the missing phone. But before police
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: could respond to the location, the cell phone signal disappeared.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: The FBI also studied the glass fragments from the Farmstead
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: crime scene.
• 28:20
  Speaker 12: I was able to determine that one bullet had been
• 28:23
  Speaker 12: fired from outside the truck into the truck and that
• 28:26
  Speaker 12: the bullet thereafter passed through the truck. My examination further
• 28:32
  Speaker 12: disclosed that no shots were fired from inside the truck.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: This was not self-defense.
• 28:41
  Speaker 12: This was murder.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: Take a look at this.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: With the farmer's murder and the theft of his pickup truck,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the FBI issued another federal warrant against Charles Moses.
• 28:54
  Speaker 12: The facts of the case had changed significantly, and I
• 28:57
  Speaker 12: was able to change the warrant application process to charge Mr.
• 29:04
  Speaker 12: Moses with the federal carjacking statute with a homicide.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: With Charles Moses crisscrossing the state, armed and out of control,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Nebraska Governor Mike Johans held a news conference to warn
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the public. It was clear the fugitive was ready to
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: kill civilians to get what he wanted. That evening, 80
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: miles to the west near the Nebraska-Wyoming border, an elderly
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: woman was enjoying a quiet evening. She heard someone breaking
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: in through a door. She could hear an intruder walking
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: through the house.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Then approaching her bedroom. It was too late to escape,
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: so she did her best to hide.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: The evening news had said Moses killed the last resident
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: he surprised. It sounded like he was looking for something,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and then left. The woman was unharmed and called police
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: from a neighbor's house. She explained that she never saw
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the man's face. The deputies from the Scottsbluff, Nebraska Sheriff's
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Department found tire tracks consistent with those on the pickup
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: truck stolen from the murdered farmer. They also recovered automotive
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: glass near the left tire track. Its position suggested it
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: came from the driver's side window. The window investigators believed
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Moses shot out while killing the farmer. Local officers contacted
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the FBI about the new development.
• 31:28
  Speaker 12: From the facts of the case and the type of
• 31:30
  Speaker 12: glass left at that crime scene, it was obvious that
• 31:34
  Speaker 12: Moses had been involved in that burglary. and that he
• 31:37
  Speaker 12: was traveling in a westerly direction.
• 31:40
  Speaker 13: With Charles Moses believed to be near Nebraska's western border,
• 31:45
  Speaker 13: the FBI notified Wyoming law agencies that a killer might
• 31:49
  Speaker 13: be headed their way.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: The small town of Lusk, Wyoming, is 20 miles from
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: the Nebraska border. At the Lusk Police Department, Chief.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: Gary Gill received the FBI bulletin.
• 32:12
  Speaker 14: That morning, we heard about Charles Moses from our dispatch.
• 32:17
  Speaker 14: We knew that he was driving a Nebraska pickup truck,
• 32:20
  Speaker 14: blue in color, and that he could be headed in
• 32:23
  Speaker 14: any direction.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: The Wyoming media warned the public about the fugitive. Around
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: 1 p.m.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: That afternoon, the media alerts paid off.
• 32:41
  Speaker 14: We heard about the call from a truck driver who
• 32:44
  Speaker 14: had called into dispatch and was relayed to our office
• 32:48
  Speaker 14: that possibly that pickup truck Charles Moses was driving was
• 32:52
  Speaker 14: at the south end parking lot of the truck stop
• 32:55
  Speaker 14: here in Lusk.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Dusty Christman responded to the scene along with
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Chief Gill. Several vehicles in the parking lot fit the description.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Officers knew one of them might hold a murderer who
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: also tried to kill two policemen.
• 33:30
  Speaker 14: We were looking at license plates. We spotted a blue
• 33:33
  Speaker 14: pickup that had matched the description.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: The plates matched.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: It was the truck.
• 33:46
  Speaker 14: We decided to try to block him in if we could.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: The officers approached from opposite directions. Someone was inside, but
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: the officers couldn't tell if it was Moses. The truck's
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: driver's side window appeared to be missing. If it was Moses,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: he might have finally come down off a long and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: haggard methamphetamine binge. Chief Gill called for backup and waited
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: for more units to arrive.
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: This would be the vehicle I think.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: We're looking for. Then the driver woke up. He's waking up.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: He's going to take off. But Assistant Chief Chrisman couldn't
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: risk firing because from his perspective, he did not get
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: a good enough look to be absolutely sure it was Moses.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: It meant another chase.
• 35:08
  Speaker 14: Our biggest fear during the chase is when Moses turned
• 35:10
  Speaker 14: onto Main Street and headed north. We knew he was
• 35:13
  Speaker 14: going to be traveling through our business district and more
• 35:16
  Speaker 14: than likely a high rate of speed. And also the
• 35:18
  Speaker 14: fear of maybe losing him once he got through the
• 35:20
  Speaker 14: city limits and headed north on Highway 85.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Weeks after Charles Moses' violent spree began, law enforcement once
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: again had him in their sights. After eluding Nebraska authorities
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: and the FBI, suspected murderer Charles Moses had crossed into Lusk, Wyoming.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Lusk police were in pursuit. But Moses had a lead
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: on him and never hesitated.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: For a moment.
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: Mr.
• 35:58
  Speaker 14: Moses finally got away from us off Highway 85 onto
• 36:02
  Speaker 14: our ranch road. The road was very rutted up. Our
• 36:06
  Speaker 14: small vehicles with two-wheel drive could not keep up with
• 36:10
  Speaker 14: him in four-wheel drive and the pickup he had. He
• 36:13
  Speaker 14: went down to a ranch place and across an old
• 36:16
  Speaker 14: dam and up into the pastures through fences and things
• 36:19
  Speaker 14: where we couldn't chase him.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Authorities lost him again. Solas Police teamed with the Niobrara
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Samuel Reed helped devise a 10-mile
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: perimeter to contain Moses.
• 36:39
  Speaker 8: The perimeter was a very large area. We were fortunate
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: in one way, it sat kind of in the middle
• 36:48
  Speaker 8: of three major highways, and we had another county road
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: that dissected it basically in the middle.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: But they couldn't rush in.
• 37:02
  Speaker 8: We were unsure what his actions were going to be,
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: so we stayed back away knowing that he had a
• 37:10
  Speaker 8: high-fired rifle.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Every law enforcement officer in the area, including fish and
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: game wardens, manned roadblocks to look for Moses and warned
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: travelers to stay away from him. They also met with
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: residents living in the 10-mile perimeter. asking them to stay
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: vigilant and call police at the first sign of any
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: suspicious activity.
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: I had a very deep concern that if we did
• 37:39
  Speaker 8: not apprehend Moses before it got dark, that we would
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: have a terrible, terrible time finding him. I knew the
• 37:46
  Speaker 8: rancher people that were there. I was very, very concerned
• 37:50
  Speaker 8: for their safety of him entering the house at gunpoint,
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: taking him hostage and shooting them and taking the vehicle
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: and leaving the area.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: All right, thanks, sir.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Although Moses was somewhere within the 10-mile perimeter, the terrain
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: made it too dangerous for deputies to go in on foot.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Without body armor and tactical training, they would be vulnerable
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: to ambush or a sniper attack.
• 38:19
  Speaker 8: For officers to go in there would have been extremely difficult.
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: There are a lot of deep draws, pine trees, ravines
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: that he could get down in. It would have been very, very,
• 38:29
  Speaker 8: very difficult to go in there and find him.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks. Special Agent Ron Rawalt helped Wyoming authorities with the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: FBI's federal resources.
• 38:42
  Speaker 12: The Wyoming office of the FBI brought in two aircraft
• 38:46
  Speaker 12: to assist in the search on the state highways and
• 38:49
  Speaker 12: the rural roads, trying to locate the vehicle Moses was in.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Flying a grid pattern over the area, one of the
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: aircraft spotted the truck Moses was last seen driving. It
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: looked like he was stuck in a ravine. The SWAT
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: team from the Nebraska State Patrol was airlifted to the area.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Moses was armed with a high-powered rifle. The SWAT team
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: had to move cautiously, man by man. An aggressive fugitive.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: on powerful drugs could be behind any tree ready to
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: kill they positioned themselves above.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: The pickup.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: But they had no visual of Charles Moses he might
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: be watching them waiting for a clean shot They had
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: to start their search from the truck. To stun and
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: distract anyone near it, they fired a flashbang percussion grenade.
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: He wasn't there.
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: They found footprints in the mud by the truck and
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: began following them. But in the trees, the trail went cold.
• 40:32
  Speaker 8: He had eluded us, the people that were right on
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: the scene. He had eluded a SWAT team that had
• 40:39
  Speaker 8: been flown in out of Nebraska.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: That night, Moses would surface again.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: At 8.30 p.m., rancher Jim Kramers and his son Justin
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: heard their dog barking at something behind the house. They
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: knew about Moses, so Justin went out armed.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: Someone was out there.
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: I've got a gun. Don't go any further.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: From the brief look, they believed it was Moses. The
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: gunman had to be stopped.
• 41:21
  Speaker 9: Justin, take your rifle, go around back, get on the
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: backside of him. Then you do what you have to do.
• 41:27
  Speaker 7: Okay?
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Kramers was unarmed in a standoff with a desperate fugitive
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: who had never hesitated to use violence.
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: The rancher had a plan and hoped it would work.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: In eastern Wyoming, a rancher and his son found fugitive
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Charles Moses on their property. From media reports, rancher Jim
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Cramers knew Moses was wanted for shooting several police officers
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and killing a farmer for his truck.
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: Justin, you know on the back side of the.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Justin Cramers went to cover Moses from the back. The
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: father risked his life, hoping to end the fugitive's rampage
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: without more violence.
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: I was totally unarmed. Moses had a rifle and a
• 42:33
  Speaker 9: large caliber pistol in his hands.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Hoping his son could protect him if his plan failed,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Jim Kramers offered Moses a deal. He knew the fugitive
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: had been exposed to the day's cold rain showers.
• 42:48
  Speaker 9: If Moses put down the guns and came inside.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: The rancher would give him a hot meal and throw
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: his clothes in the dryer.
• 42:59
  Speaker 9: This was a plan in my head that if I
• 43:01
  Speaker 9: got him in the house, I had nothing to fear
• 43:05
  Speaker 9: from him because we would know that he had no weapons.
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: It was too cold, and if he ran out of
• 43:13
  Speaker 9: the house without any of his clothes with him, why,
• 43:16
  Speaker 9: he was not going to be in good shape. I
• 43:20
  Speaker 9: very seldom invite someone into my house that I don't
• 43:23
  Speaker 9: ask them to eat. So I knew he was hungry,
• 43:25
  Speaker 9: so I said, let's have something to eat.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: If they got him inside, they would try to call
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the police without him knowing. By this time, Justin Kramers
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: had Moses in his sights. It looked like Moses was
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: going for it.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: Then he tensed.
• 43:50
  Speaker 8: All right, I'll put my rifle down now.
• 43:51
  Speaker 7: Where's the other guy you're with? Right behind you.
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: Jim Kramer's hope Moses would not draw his son into
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: his violence.
• 44:04
  Speaker 9: My greatest concern throughout the ordeal was that my son
• 44:12
  Speaker 9: would not have to shoot someone. I didn't want him,
• 44:16
  Speaker 9: you know, justly or unjustly, I did not want him
• 44:20
  Speaker 9: to have to go through life knowing that he had
• 44:22
  Speaker 9: killed a person.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: If it did turn violent, Justin could not waver.
• 44:31
  Speaker 15: One of the fears I had was if I did
• 44:34
  Speaker 15: have to shoot at him that I might miss. I
• 44:37
  Speaker 15: only had one shot while he had up to six
• 44:40
  Speaker 15: in his pistol where I had a single shot rifle.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: After weeks of a methamphetamine-induced rampage, Charles Moses finally slowed down.
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: He left his weapons outside.
• 44:59
  Speaker 15: I never actually lowered my rifle. I brought it down
• 45:03
  Speaker 15: a small ways, but within quick enough time enough that
• 45:07
  Speaker 15: I could have brought it back up to put on
• 45:10
  Speaker 15: him if I needed to.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Inside the warm house and out of his wet clothes,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Moses concentrated on his first hot meal in days.
• 45:22
  Speaker 15: I was able to go out the front door of
• 45:25
  Speaker 15: the house and was gone for around five minutes while
• 45:29
  Speaker 15: I called the sheriff from my brother's house. And then
• 45:32
  Speaker 15: I was able to come back in the same door
• 45:34
  Speaker 15: while he never realized I was gone.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: A Lusk police officer and a Wyoming game warden were
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: there in minutes. Because of the Kramer's plan, the wild,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: deadly fugitive had nothing to fight with. After a staggering
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: chase across hundreds of miles, filled with burglary, carjacking, gunfights
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and murder, Charles Moses Jr. was finally in police custody.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: As they theorized, Moses had been wounded by Nebraska deputies.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: At a Cheyenne, Wyoming hospital, Moses was treated for a
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: bullet wound to his shoulder, dehydration, and exhaustion. The drugs
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: he had taken, and the police relentlessly on his trail,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: had run him into the ground. FBI Special Agent Ron
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Rawalt arranged for Moses to be transported back to Nebraska.
• 46:58
  Speaker 12: The morning after the arrest, when I drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
• 47:01
  Speaker 12: I took a lieutenant with the Nebraska State Patrol with me,
• 47:04
  Speaker 12: and I took Deputy Casey Nelms with me, the individual
• 47:08
  Speaker 12: that had attempted to initiate the arrest originally. The purpose
• 47:14
  Speaker 12: of taking these two individuals with me was so that
• 47:17
  Speaker 12: when I returned to Nebraska with Moses, both individuals could
• 47:21
  Speaker 12: affect the respective warrants that they were carrying. The lieutenant
• 47:25
  Speaker 12: from the patrol arrested Moses for the violation of shooting
• 47:30
  Speaker 12: a Nebraska State Patrol trooper, and Casey Nelms arrested Moses
• 47:35
  Speaker 12: for the murder of the farmer, as well as the
• 47:38
  Speaker 12: assault by shooting of the two deputies from Lincoln County.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Moses initially fought the charges against him. But when confronted
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: with ballistics and other forensic evidence, he plea bargained to avoid.
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: The death penalty.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Charles Moses Jr. pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: two counts of assault on a police officer. He was
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: sentenced to 190 years in prison. The state trooper Moses
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: shot returned to light duty in June of 2000. Moses
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: had also shot Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Stan McKnight in
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: the head and hand.
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: He spent nearly two months in the hospital.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Never willing to give up, McKnight was determined to return
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: to his regular patrol.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: I had to go back for several different operations, with
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: a total of nine operations and 23 months of continuing therapy.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: After the doctors had stated that they had done all
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: that they could for me, I was checked and we
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: went through all the physical dexterity. And I was able
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: to go back to work and maintain and do what
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: I was doing before.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Methamphetamine has become the biggest drug problem in the Midwest.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement there are dedicated to fight it, whatever the cost.