For a moment, there was silence as both Farrell and the two men in the Nissan took stock of their situations. Farrell slipped his service weapon of the holster, slid from the car and ordered both young men to freeze.
Out of the corner of his eye, Farrell could see a Fair Lawn police cruiser pull up onto the lawn from Morlot and for the first time since he had tried to pull Marti over, he was not alone. He had help. And he was going to need it.
Just as Collura's cruiser pulled in, Omar Marti bolted from the driver's side door. He rushed toward the back of the church. Farrell holstered his gun and took off after him. Quickly assessing the situation, Collura steered her cruiser toward the church and pinned the fleeing suspect against the wall. "She corralled him, pretty much," Farrell said. In the confusion, Ivan Marti slipped away. Even now, Collura's family holds Ivan Marti partially responsible for the deadly events that followed. "All that other guy had to do was say, 'hey, he's got a gun'...he would have been a hero today and...my sister might still be here...it might never have happened."
Angry, still pumping adrenaline from the chase, Farrell grabbed Marti and pulled him to the ground. "I just tackled him...he was getting his ass kicked and I didn't care."
Farrell had hit Marti hard enough to knock the wind out of him. "Now I'm giving him some fatherly advice, I drag him out of...a confined space between Mary Ann's car and the church so I can get a little more room," and all the while, he said, Marti lying face down, struggled to keep his hands beneath him.
By that time, Collura had gotten out of her car, Farrell said.
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