Leonardi helped put handcuffs on the man, who
later was identified as Morgan Wayne Walker, 36.
Walker was booked on a charge of resisting arrest.
Police later determined he wasn’t the man who
assaulted the city employee.
Chief Stops Thief
Leonardi returned to the area where the suspect
first ran and found a discarded college ring that was
stolen in a residential burglary two days before. An
iPod in the backpack has since been identified as
stolen.
Redondo Beach Police Chief Joe Leonardi just wanted the story to die. “I’m embarrassed,” he says.
Leonardi’s exploits soon hit the local paper, and
then the story caught fire. Embarrassed, the police
chief didn’t watch TV for three days. “And that
bothered me,” Leonardi says, “because I like to
watch TV.”
Redondo chief hops on suspect’s bike and helps make arrest
The police chief isn’t trying to hide anything. Rather, the 30-year law enforcement veteran is uncomfortable
being in the spotlight for recently assisting in the arrest of an assault suspect by hopping on the suspect’s
abandoned bicycle and chasing after him.
The July incident, which occurred after lunch when Leonardi was wearing a pinstriped suit and tie, attracted
national media attention.
Leonardi says he’s not eager for the spotlight. “There are police officers in this department and throughout the
state who do good work every day, but they get no recognition,” says Leonardi, 57. “And that bothers me.”
Still, he realizes the story about the bike chase is pretty amusing, and it has given his staff and other area
chiefs some good laughs. Leonardi admits that the suspect may have gotten away if he hadn’t hopped on the
man’s planned getaway vehicle and assisted his uniformed officers.
“I really irritated (the suspect),” Leonardi says, “and
that’s a good thing. Another good thing is that most
people, after reading about this, have been saying
positive things about the police.”
Here’s what happened that day in the beach city
near Los Angeles:
As he usually does whenever possible, Leonardi
had lunch with his wife. He drove his unmarked
patrol car to a park where a transient had recently
assaulted a Public Works employee.
Redondo Beach officers were looking for the
suspect — a 6-foot-tall male — for assaulting a city
employee in the park on July 3. The suspect had fled
on a rusty black bike.
Leonardi spotted a man who fit the description
arguing with a group of homeless people in
Veterans Park. When the suspect rode away on an
identical-looking bike, Leonardi called for backup
and started following him at a distance in his city
car. When a patrol officer pulled up to the suspect
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and attempted to stop him on foot, the man on the
bicycle sped away and began zigzagging through
streets and alleys. Leonardi followed him and told
patrol officers which way he was heading.
The suspect stopped in an alley, threw down his
bike and a backpack, and started running. Leonardi
told officers that the suspect was running on foot
toward the next street. He started to run after him,
but the suspect quickly ran through a gate with a
150-foot lead. Leonardi picked up the backpack, got
on the bike and pedaled after the suspect.
Officers later would tell Leonardi that they were
confused to see the gray-haired chief on a bike,
zipping down streets in his suit at speeds of up to
25 mph.
“One of my officers thought, ‘I didn’t know he
exercised at lunch!’” Leonardi recalls. While riding
the bike, Leonardi startled an older lady when he
had to brake and skid behind her.
“Did you see anybody around here running?” he
asked the shaken pedestrian. She pointed across the
street to an empty patrol car.
Leonardi figures he cut off the suspect’s escape at
least twice as the suspect jumped fences. He rode
the bike back and forth from the alley to the street
twice before another officer found the suspect
running across the alley.
He says of the bike ride that made him famous:
“I wasn’t intending to get involved. I just wanted
a patrol unit to stop him. When the suspect ran, I
didn’t want him to backtrack and get the bike and
backpack, and I didn’t want him to get away.”
Since the story broke, Leonardi has taken a lot
of ribbing from fellow chiefs and officers for the
offbeat collaring of a suspect. He has received
photos from his staff with his head on a