"I'm Going to Kill That Cop": A Police Officer's Final Traffic Stop
Heroes Behind the Badge: The Harold Vitale Story (Part 1)
In this powerful first installment, the Heroes Behind the Badge team speaks with Les Vitale about his brother Harold, a decorated police officer whose life was tragically cut short during a routine traffic stop in 1985.
Les shares the meaning behind "Vitale Pride" - the family code of honor that Harold lived by - and recounts in vivid detail the events of that fateful night when a 19-year-old suspect with an outstanding warrant made the deadly decision to flee with Officer Vitale's arm trapped in the car window.
This episode provides a rare and intimate glimpse into what happens to a law enforcement family in the aftermath of tragedy, including their frustrating journey through a justice system that ultimately failed them when Harold's killer received only a manslaughter conviction despite clear evidence of premeditation.
Join hosts Dennis Collins, Craig Floyd, and Bill Erfurth for this heart-wrenching but essential reminder of the risks officers face every day and the true cost of the oath they take to protect and serve. Part 1 focuses on Harold's life, service, and the tragic circumstances of his death, setting the stage for the inspiring story of legacy and healing that follows in Part 2.
Transcript
For more information about how you can get involved and add your support to the men and women of law enforcement. Citizens behind the badge.org. That's Citizens behind the badge.org. I'm your host, Dennis Collins, a founding director of Citizens Behind the Badge and a law enforcement Father, please say hello to my colleagues today.
his friends and some of his [: [: [:Now, let's say hello to our Fearless Leader. Hey, Craig Floyd, how are you today?
[:Um, they built a, a memorial to him. Uh, art Victorious is the statue in Saugus, Massachusetts paying tribute to our fallen hero today. And, and, uh, I think many of us know King Arthur of the Renaissance era. He was revered as a protector of the people. And Art Victorious represents, uh, king Arthur's role as protector of the people.
Harold Vitale was a protector of the people in Saugus, Massachusetts, and, uh, he is a fallen hero. We're gonna tell you his story today,
[:Number one, we never forget. Heroes live forever, and we don't just focus on how they died, but we remember how they lived and more importantly, we focus on their legacy. Today's hero. Harold Vitale, an army veteran, 14 years of distinguished service with the Saugus Mass Police Department. His family remembers that Harold loved cars.
th,:Harold's story is about a fallen officer who just wanted to help people, a criminal justice system that failed him. And his family. And a family that's devoted to honoring Harold's life and service. Today we are delighted to have with us one of Harold's five brothers, Les Vitale. Les will tell us Harold's story and will talk about most importantly, his legacy.
So, uh, Les, I can't stop but ask. Vitale Pride. What did Harold mean by Vitale pride?
[:S uh, brother, I didn't think too much about it other than he's an older brother and he would beat the crap outta me if I didn't. But, you know, we, we learned how to back each other up and, um, as, as people maybe should know, as I was the youngest in the family. So I was a very young, young boy, young child.
And, um, you know, back in the days when you'd go to the school yard and you, you get pushed around. One lesson that I learned early on was either stand up for yourself or surround yourself with people that'll stand up with you and for you,
[: [: have is your name. You know, [:And I, I got that message loud and clear and I, you know, tried to live my life that way. And, uh, I think it resonated even more after he was killed. Um, I understood even more how important that that was.
[: [:That's always the week. That includes May 15th, and that's where we truly do honor the men and women in law enforcement. And we pay special tribute to those who die in the line of duty. No family that I know of, and I know many I. Has outdone the Vitale family in terms of remembering their fallen in loved one.
Uh, Harold was an incredible individual. I never met him myself, but I feel like I know him so well because I've heard the stories and I know the family. Uh, so today I want, uh, Les to help our listeners, our viewers know the story of Harold Vitale. We've talked a little bit about, uh, his life, uh, who he was, uh, how he, uh, represented the family.
person or, uh, army veteran. [: th,: [: he midnight shift because he [:And within about an hour, an hour and a half's time. Came upon a scenario where a call had gone over a police scanner that I was in June, so it was just before 4th of July. And some, um, kids were out up to no good driving around in cars, blowing mailboxes off people's homes of all things. So the department had the word out on the lookout, middle of the night, and about two o'clock he saw a car, uh, rolled through a stop sign.
iver and three friends. And, [:So he was listening to the broadcast that came over the airways from the dispatch and realized pretty quickly that, um, my brother was going to have to approach him. And after he pulled him over and, uh, he had an outstanding warrant and um, he had been in another high speed chase on altercation with the state police.
processing, went through the [:En sued the person, the driver of the car. 19-year-old individual was listening to whole thing and according to the witnesses in the car who testified against their friend, uh, he was so upset when he had heard that there was a warrant out for his arrest, that Harold was gonna come back and ask him to step out of the vehicle.
d noticed it back in the day,: me, step out of the car and. [:Um, and Harold said he had had it covered, you know, not to worry about it, sat in his cruiser and within a few seconds the next thing the backup saw was Harold had apparently reached into, pulled the button and latched the door, and the fellow rolled the window up in his arm and he drove off about two or 300 yards at high speeds.
And the door was open because Harold got the door open successfully. And the fellow swerved the vehicle against a sign pole, and basically he killed him, you know, instantly at that point, um, the occupants all fled the vehicle, including the driver. And, um, the backup had pulled right up called 9 1 1. Uh, called in for, uh, you know, uh, backups to, to come an ambulance, et cetera.
uh, my brother Dick, who was [:He found out that Harold actually was, was, was basically transported to the hospital. Probably not gonna make it. Uh, the phone calls started to ring out through the rest of the family. My brother Dick was tasked with that responsibility to call each and every one of us at about two o'clock in the morning.
And you know, I say this 40 years later, and as I say it, I still feel like it just happened. Um, you know, it just, it's still surreal that that would happen that fast under those circumstances. And, you know, you sit back and you ask yourself why, you know, was there anything that could have been done differently, uh, to reverse the, the course of action?
ow, that that was it. He was [:Where he might have gone, and they showed up the next day and they arrested the individual at his friend's house. And then
[: ng. At the driver to stop. I [:Unbelievable.
[:Did he reach in with his right hand or his left hand?
[:So it was two hands, right and left. And it did come out in trial because the defense attorney tried to use the theory that he was a young 19-year-old who was very afraid of his life and his big burly officer with a white pearled handled gun, which was Harold's, you know, favorite gun. Um, he was intimidated by it.
So, you know that that's, that's the stuff that, that, that happens, that's disgusting that, uh, things get fabricated. They get blown outta proportion, but. You know, people of the jury are gonna sit and listen and try to understand, you know, try to put themselves in different people's shoes. But, uh, our best, the to, to our knowledge, how that came out was that he would've used his right hand to try to unlock from the outside and the left hand to pull up the little door button to get the, the lock disengaged.
ve reached for his, his gun. [: [:And, and, and the reason, the reason I'm talking about this is I had made a traffic stop as a young cop. And the guy was belligerent, I believe he was drunk, and I reached in with my left hand to put the car into park and turn the keys off, and he grabbed my arm and took off, and I pulled my gun out and I.
e about it. And that was the [:Free or your gun hand, like I'm right-handed, so you're gun hand free. And when we were in the academy, if you were ever caught carrying your books or your backpack or whatever it was during classes or or whatnot, in your strong hand, in your gun hand, you had to do pushups. And to this very day now, years after working and being retired, if I'm carrying my gym bag, if I'm going anywhere.
I still always carry that in my left hand to keep my strong hand free. So just a kind of a, an interesting thing, and that's why I had asked that question.
[:So the door was swinging open. It wouldn't close all the way, but Harold was trying to brace himself by putting his, he, he yelled at him that he, from what we were told, that he yelled at him to stop the car. My arm is stuck, and he tried to put his two legs, his feet into the ground to pull his arm out.
When he did it, he broke both of his legs.
[: [: oor, shop, right turn into a [:And you, you know, try to reverse the course of action, but you wish those kids in the car could have somehow won the argument. Um, you wish the kid would've understood that nothing good is gonna come of this. And at the end of the day. You're gonna go to court, you're gonna go to trial. So you got another ticket and you know, you didn't kill somebody.
At, at the end of the day, he was brought up and indicted on a first degree murder charge, which is a whole nother story, uh, because of the premeditated nature of it. Scanner in the car, told his friends he was gonna flee. I have a warrant, they're not gonna get me again. I'm gonna kill that effing prop. And, you know, back and forth it went.
idn't wait very long at all. [:Stay right there. And the next thing he sees this car take off, then he jumps back in his cruiser, a thousand yards, and the he's left to pick up. The pieces of my brother on the, on the street and then call in, and it's somehow that presence of mind to call in what had happened, and then all hell broke.
[: as far as I'm concerned, and [:I, I know the family feels that way. But he served less than 10 years in prison, got out at the age of 29. How did that happen? Why wasn't he convicted of first degree murder and how did he get out in, uh, 10 years?
[: broadcast, what they heard, [:Elaborated on what? Um, this, his nickname was Pepper. The kid who drove the car what Pepper had said he was gonna do and they begged him to not do it. Um, so we, we sat there scratching our head during the trial and obviously the defense attorney did a great job trying to paint a different picture of that, that it all happened because this young boy was afraid.
Um, so. Re So first degree murder charge is the charge. He gets indicted very easily and we go to trial, and then the district attorney's office tells us what, what's likely gonna happen, what's, what's the, what's the defense attorney gonna try to argue? He's trying to get this dropped down to maybe a manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, et cetera, et cetera.
ies happened. We think we're [:But the biggest incident, the biggest error that happened was when the judge said he was gonna release them to the chambers. He wanted to read the charges. So he read the charges of what. He was charged with and what, uh, what the different sentencing guidelines are, what the consequences are. So he led with the manslaughter charges and never read the first degree murder charge, never read it for oversight.
nographer over here and read [:You read. He's been tried. We've been trialing him all week on a first degree murder charge. You never read the charge. So he brought them back out and it was like, oh, by the way, there's one more charge I have to tell you about. And that's first degree murder. Back to the room. They went and they came out and, um.
He was found guilty of involuntary manis of, uh, manslaughter. And, um, one other crazy, you know, the things come back to me as I'm talking this out loud now. The foreman of the jury was, uh, the young kid, big guy. He, um, he kept asking questions and the judge kept telling him he needed to be careful asking questions to not taint things, et cetera.
all losers and told me never [:To cave into their demands. Otherwise you would've hung, had had ended up with a hung jury and I couldn't see your family go through that. Based upon everything I saw, this is the most egregious thing. He's a murderer and he should have been convicted of murder. So the news media were out there writing things down and you know, the whole circus ensued.
And then, you know, so he has his manslaughter charge. Take him away. And then obviously the appeal process begins and you know, a couple of years later we find ourselves back in court, um, for the appeals. And some of the appeals he wins, somebody loses and he ends up getting retried a second time. So we had to do the trial all over again.
manslaughter charge that was [:But you know, we know otherwise, and you know that that's not justice.
[: [: y brother worked with in the [:The last thing we wanted was one of his coworkers to do the wrong thing. But people would say, oh, you must wanna, you must wanna put a contract on this kid, or you, uh, the, the cops will kill him. And I'm like, you know what, we, I don't think we're gonna, we we're not gonna win it. Anything if that happens. So, um, yeah.
You know, it's just a, they go lucky.
[: Of these [: [:Uh, we felt we lost and he, he turned around and my whole family sitting there, all my, my other brothers and my sisters and we're like. I can't believe this guy got up and he turns around and he pointed at us as he said it out loud and looked at the judge. He said, I, my brother, my son was sick and tired of being harassed and arrested by the police all the time.
t spilled over into the, out [:Um, but then we just realized we better diffuse this and just go off on our own. And we went, we had a meeting with the prosecutor and talked about what are the next steps immediately figuring appeals court and then probably a new trial. And that was exhausting. That was emotionally draining. We can't believe we are gonna have to do this when my brother is the one who's dead.
This is the kid who killed him and said he was going to, so that's what we knew.
[: [: f that fateful night in June,:That continues to support law enforcement families across the nation. Les will share the profound experience that changed their perspective at National Police Week in Washington DC and how it inspired them to establish a foundation that has raised over a million dollars to honor fallen officers in their families.
onclusion to this remarkable [: