I talked about this with an officer involved in the manhunt Saturday. Details were slightly unclear, but from what I understood, the suspect was taken into custody somewhere on Hwy. 17 and was not cuffed due to being at or near a house with a lot of people (maybe trooper was trying to get out of there quick?) Then the trooper was transporting the suspect down Hwy. 28 to (I assume) Sumter County jail in Livingston. The suspect apparently was going nuts in the backseat, kicking the back of the seats and whatnot, so the trooper decided to pull over at the Shell at the Livingston exit by I-59 and put the guy in handcuffs. Supposedly when he opened the door, a fight ensued and the suspect ended up getting the troopers gun and taser and tried to shoot the trooper, but the gun didn't fire. Did not hear why the gun didn't fire. Then he fled the scene (not sure if on foot or stolen vehicle). I passed about 20 different law enforcement vehicles Saturday morning, mostly troopers, and had wondered what was going on. Didn't get the emergency alert until a couple hours later.

Me too, I love my G19 but it does have the chance to fail me in any situation where the slide could get moved out of battery or the magazine dislodged. But in this officers situation, a 357 mag revolver or a cocked and locked 1911 45ACP would have ended the fight quickly with only a smidgen of a chance of malfunction any striker fired semi auto would have. Round count only matters in a fire fight, in this situation a more reliable firearm would prevail.

A-friggin'-men

No doubt

He bought and trained the dog himself also. First K9 in this area. sheriff let him use it as long as it didn't cost his budget anything. Liability just wasn't an issue at the time.

The next dog he got he went into cadaver searches with it. I never saw it in action before he left for Orange Beach.