Just released body camera video shows a dangerous chase through three counties.
It happened Friday starting when Tarpon Springs police spotted a prolific offender with outstanding warrants named John Byrne.
“Guys get out of the street this guys a nut,” a deputy is heard saying to residents during the chase.
Investigators said Byrne ran from a car in New Port Richey through a swamp into the Trinity West subdivision.
But this chase was just getting started.
Investigators said Byrne then got away from a K9, stole a Bright House work van and took off.
“He’s passing Lachlan drive going west. Stay with him. We’ve got shots fired,” the deputy said on body camera video.
Those shots, fired by deputies blew out a tire on the stolen van.
And in the video you can see the van pull out of the neighborhood driving on a rim. The tire rolled away.
The chase then goes east on State Road 54, then south down the Veteran’s Expressway.
Byrne drove all the way to the Waters Avenue exit in Tampa.
In one clip, you see the van pull into a parking lot, then driving back across six lanes of traffic.
That’s where deputies say Byrne finally ditches the van and runs again.
He makes it to a fence, but that’s where this more than 30 mile chase finally comes to an end.
The humidity fogs up the lens but you can hear the struggle as several deputies pounded on him.
“Stop fighting,” one yelled.
Byrne is facing a long list of charges including battery on a law enforcement officer.
But in the end he actually complemented the group that caught him.
“I said you all did a great job,” said Byrne.
“I thought we did. Thank you,” said the deputy.
