Following US Marshals working Project Falcon
Project Falcon. It sounds like that should be a movie or some super spy mission. While it is neither of those things, it was no less exciting to watch from a distance as US Marshals and other law enforcement agency officials went out to fulfill Project Falcon. Project Falcon is a law enforcement task force led by the US Marshals to serve as many warrants to the individuals that are still at large. Usually it is a week long but this year, Marshals extended it to a month.
After first talking to Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike Parks, head of the Metro Fugitive Task Force the week before, the reporter I was following, Jay Marks, a videographer and myself went to Moore to shadow Parks, two other Marshals and two other law enforcement officials who were volunteering for Project Falcon. The warrant they had that day was for a man who had drugs less than 1,000 feet from a school.
The first stop was his apartment. While Jay and I were watching from the sidewalk, Parks and the others were led to the suspect’s best friends apartment and from there to the suspect’s girlfriend’s apartment. While at the girlfriend’s apartment complex, neighbors began to come outside as they saw US Marshals and a video camera wandering around.
After showing the others a picture of the suspect, a woman said she just saw him on a purple bike ride to the other side of the complex. Quickly, we got to the other side and the onlookers followed us.
When they knocked on the door with a purple bike in front of it, a 20-something year-old guy opened the door and it reeked from the smell of pot. He wasn’t our guy, though he looked similar. Though he continually denied he was high, he knew he was in trouble when an officer came out of the apartment with weed in his hand. Parks and the others then asked him if he knew the suspect and the guy said he knew him but stopped hanging out with him because he “saw the road he was going down and it was a bad one.” After a long talk, the guy made a deal with the Marshals that he would help them find their suspect.
While all of this was happening, neighbors pulled out their lawn chairs and watched. I’d say about 20 people were sitting outside their apartments watching.
With another lead at hand, the Marshals got ready to take off and we thought this was a good way to end our tag-along. After thanking Parks, I overheard the Marshals’ new source as he said one thing to his friend, “I can’t see straight.” That had to be the quote of the day.
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