Bounty hunter tells his story after seeing fatal accident

Bounty hunter Patrick Caley can't sleep after seeing a fatality accident early Tuesday.

The image of a body being mauled by a pickup traveling at 60 mph still plays in his mind, the former Fort Worth-area police officer said Wednesday.

"I figured there was one guy dead and there's nothing I could do for him,” he said. "The best thing I could do for him was to catch the guy that hit him.”

Alex Johnson, 21, died at the scene of the accident on Interstate 35 near NE 63. He was changing a flat tire with the help of his friend, Peastro Johnson, 31, when a pickup plowed into them at 3:40 a.m.

Caley chased and subdued the driver, whom police identified as Jamie Rodriguez. Rodriguez was arrested on several complaints, including first-degree manslaughter. He was freed Wednesday from the Oklahoma County jail on $21,000 bail.

Caley, 38, had just finished a late-night shift of hunting down bail jumpers and had bought some food at the Whataburger on May Avenue, just south of I-44, Tuesday morning. The father of two got onto I-44 eastbound, and by the time he got to Pennsylvania Avenue, he had noticed a truck swerving, he said.

He followed, and as they neared northbound I-35, Caley said he knew he was tailing a drunken driver. He called 911 and got on the line with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol dispatcher. He can be heard on the 911 recording telling the dispatcher:

"I'm following a drunk driver. He's on the shoulder.”

A second later, Caley's voice intensifies as he tells the dispatcher there's been an accident, that the driver has hit two cars parked along the interstate's shoulder.

"I think there's a fatality. Yup, there's a fatality. There's a guy underneath the car. I don't think he made it.”

"As I watched it happen, I just kind of cringed,” he said Wednesday.

Caley and the pickup driver pulled over. Caley was closest to the accident. The pickup's hazard lights flicked on and Caley turned to go help the injured. He thought the pickup driver was going to follow, but he didn't.

"Hey, hey, hey ... the guy's running. The guy's running. He's on foot. He's going into the grass.”

Still on the phone with the dispatcher, Caley jumped back into his truck and gave chase across the ditch, quickly closing the 500-yard head start the man had on him. He jumped out of the truck, ran down a ditch and grabbed the man, who struggled.

Caley's cell phone was on his front seat, capturing everything on the 911 recording.

"Get on the ground. Get on the ground. I got him right now.”

Caley said Wednesday he dragged the man up the side of the ditch and eventually had to pull his weapon, which was under the seat of his truck.

Contributing: Brian Sargent, Staff Writer