By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Monday, January 24, 2011
Every day across the country, city cops and county deputies team up on regional U.S. Marshals Service task forces to track down fugitives. Last year, their efforts led to nearly 82,000 arrests nationwide.
The target: violent criminals — some on the run from another town, others hiding within their own.
With each capture comes a warrant — and a risk to those who serve it.
Officers wear bulletproof vests and carry shields. They study their target's behavior.
"We treat everyone as if they're armed," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Ron Lindback. "We don't take anything for granted."
But nobody can look inside the mind of a wanted person.
In 2009, a murder suspect on the run pulled a gun on task force members outside a Holiday Inn in Tampa. A marshal shot Thomas McCoy twice before he ...