While this video of a courthouse bailiff hitting every stair on the way down as he chased after an escapee on Tuesday is remarkable on its own, it really rises to another level when you learn what was at stake.
Highland County Courthouse Deputy Ben Reno, who minutes earlier might have watched a Bengals "big hits" compilation on YouTube, is the person in this surveillance footage going over the railing after Nickolaus Garrison, failing to catch him, and sliding down every stair. (That xylophone sound is only in your head.) Garrison made it out of the courthouse untouched; Reno was hospitalized with broken ribs and a concussion, although he was released and is recovering at home.
Reno's foolish decision seems even more foolish with the knowledge that this whole chase happened after the court had sentenced Garrison to a six-month jail sentence for meth possession. Was it worth an unplanned back realignment and possible lost brain cells to pursue a guy like that? Well, you'd have to ask the bailiff who believed he could call upon the abilities of George Iloka as he tried to ensure that someone served their time for a non-violent drug charge.
Retail employees are usually trained to not chase shoplifters. It's just not worth it—for the companies, to be clear. They don't care about their employees' safety; they just don't want to be held liable if something goes wrong in the chase. But the point is that what was taken is a pittance when compared to what could be taken in the pursuit of retrieval. Ben Reno would have been better off keeping that in mind. He thought he was LaRon Landry in 2007, but he was actually LaRon Landry in 2014.
[Local 12]
H/t to Tyler Schmall
