- Hello, everyone.
I'm Sheriff Wayne Ivey,
and you're watching HIT The Streets
with the proud men and women
of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
- [Narrator] They say that crime will rise
to the level a community will tolerate.
In Brevard County, we have zero tolerance for crime.
These are the stories.
(bars slamming)
- So welcome back to HIT The Streets,
and tonight's episode is gonna be a wild ride
as we go after convicted felons with guns,
take some drugs off our streets,
and we end the night with an officer-involved shooting
after a lengthy pursuit
with a violent domestic violence suspect
who made the mistake of shooting at our team.
So our first case of the evening
started in the area of Barna Avenue in Titusville,
where deputies attempted to stop a silver Infiniti
for traffic violations, when all of a sudden,
the driver decided he could outrun our deputies.
Apparently the driver and sole occupant of the car,
Micheal Shallow, didn't get the memo that in Brevard County,
we will chase your butt down and put you in jail
if you try to run from us.
So after he crashed his car,
he decided to jump out and run on foot.
(dogs barking)
- What you mean I can't drive?
Ah!
That wasn't me, sir, you got the wrong person.
- My man Shallow is perhaps the worst liar
in the history of liars,
as he tried to convince us that we didn't
see him toss the gun,
he wasn't the one who threw the gun down
even though it was laying right beside his shoe
that he ran out of when you're trying to flee,
and of course, my favorite part.
- Oh, that's funny.
That key makes that beep.
- I just told you they put it on me back there.
- Oh, man.
- I was in the woods laying down.
- Being a convicted felon in possession
of a firearm wasn't the only problem Shallow had.
So he got a free ride by our lodge shuttle service
to Ivey's iron bar lodge where he was held
on a no bond status for two counts
of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,
two counts of carrying a concealed firearm,
trafficking in cocaine, possession of cocaine,
possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana,
reckless driving, resisting without violence,
driving while license suspended with knowledge,
and of course, violation of probation,
because that's what these dirtbags do.
They get out of jail on probation
and go right back to their drug dealing ways.
You would think
at some point society would stop giving drug dealers
and criminals breaks and just lock their butts
up for real so they can learn their lesson.
Okay, next up, my main man
Izzy and Hannah Banana are conducting a traffic stop
near the intersection
of Carver and Robert Street in Melbourne.
As they approach the vehicle, man, things start to happen.
- Yeah, see my wallet.
I do have a license though, sir.
- All right.
- I was just trying to find my friend's house.
He's over here somewhere.
- She just dropped it.
She just dropped it.
Get outta the car.
Ma'am, put your hands up now.
Put your hands up, hands.
Hands up too.
Steering wheel, now.
Put your hands on the steering wheel.
You're being detained at this point, right?
- Okay, that's fine, sir.
- Detainment, not arrest.
- Okay, that's cool.
I do have license though.
- All right, just detainment.
- Okay.
Fine.
- At this point, we're doing a drug investigation.
All right, so everybody's being detained.
It's looking like she's the one that's gonna go.
He provided the crack for services.
That's what it was.
- Alanya Liberto tried to conceal a bag of cocaine
that she had in her possession
at the time of the traffic stop.
And Hannah, yeah, she was able to observe her actions,
which led to both her
and the driver being removed from the vehicle.
After a search
of the vehicle failed to reveal anything else,
Liberto was given a ride to the iron bar lodge
on a total bond of $2,500 for possession
of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
All right, folks.
Run to the kitchen and get the popcorn
and then get back in here and buckle up,
'cause this next case is a crazy ride
that ends with the suspect making the fatal mistake
of shooting at our deputies.
The incident starts when our patrol deputies responded
to a suspicious person call
at the Sunset Bay Apartments where a subject
was observed trying to break into cars.
Our first deputy on the scene
recognized the subject as Richard James Ruiz,
who was wanted for violation of pretrial release conditions
on a previous domestic violence arrest.
Ruiz had repeated arrest for domestic violence and battery,
and in fact,
the apartment complex where he was first observed
is the exact location
where he was prohibited from being within 500 feet of.
Ruiz had actually committed,
within a period of two weeks,
a battery and domestic violence,
a violation of conditions of release
on the domestic violence case,
and then committed another battery and domestic violence,
all against the same victim.
As it would turn out, Ruiz was not only at this location
where a judge had ordered him to stay away from,
but was also armed with a loaded handgun.
I think it's pretty clear
to me and everyone else what his intentions were,
and thankfully a citizen saw something
and said something so our deputies could respond
and immediately address the issue.
Now as things started to unfold,
Ruiz was repeatedly ordered to comply
with lawful instructions and he not only refused to comply,
he got into his vehicle, a black Ford F-150,
and tried to flee,
striking several cars in the parking lot
and then intentionally trying
to run over one of our deputies who was on the scene.
At this point, Ruiz fled the scene
and deputies initiated a pursuit that traveled westbound
on State Road 520, then north on I-95 to 528,
and then south on the I-95
until he did a U-turn in the southbound lane of I-95
to travel back north to 528,
where he then went west on 528 headed toward Orange County.
- [Officer] He's four, signal 4, signal 4.
- [Officer] He still have a passenger with him?.
No?
- [Officer] He's in the back seat still.
- [Officer] Anybody got eyes on him?
He's in the back seat still.
- [Officer] Hey, Mitch.
- [Officer] Is that a gunshot?
- [Dispatcher] We got shots fired out here, 826,
we got shots fired from the truck.
- Get Orange county needs to shut down 528
at the county line if they can, please.
(guns firing)
cease fire! Cease fire!
It's leaking gas.
- Well, as you can see in the video,
Ruiz made the unfortunate decision to point a gun
and fired at our deputies.
Folks, I've made it perfectly clear,
if you point a gun at one of my deputies,
you just guaranteed yourself a trip to the morgue.
These brave men and women deserve to go home
to their families and we will not,
and I do mean not, let a violent thug stand in their way.
This guy and his violent actions put the lives
of countless innocent citizens
and law enforcement officers in danger,
and at the end of the day,
he picked a fight with the wrong people.
He started the battle and we freaking ended it.
I cannot be more proud of our deputies
for the way they handled this entire incident.
From the time the incident started until it ended on 528,
these men and women handled their business.
As you can see in the video, during the chase,
our deputies took extreme precaution to protect citizens.
They repeatedly attempted to stop his flight
and they watched each other's six
during the most critical point of the incident,
making sure all of our team members went home safe.
Ruiz was a violent felon who had multiple fleeing charges
on his record and who was sentenced at one point
to prison because he simply couldn't obey the law.
He started this craziness
that put everyone's life at risk,
and our team ended it.
Well, there you have it, folks.
Another great and exciting episode
of HIT the Streets and another great night
of our team protecting our community and our citizens.
We'll see you next time when the proud men and women
of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office hit the streets.