A Cop Doesn’t Realize Woman is Hiding a Deadly Secret

Man come up here. Don't walk away. No, no walking. Come over here. Okay? Walk upstairs. Alright, let's get out this water area. You're scared. Alright, let's walk up here. Let's get off this water, okay? Don't run. It's only walk. That dramatic body cam footage shows Florida deputies chasing down an apprehending a 21-year-old woman who just stabbed one of their fellow officers in the neck. The attack and the events leading up to it were all captured on camera. It tells the story of what happened when what initially seemed like a routine traffic case nearly turned deadly for one young police officer. I think she stabbed him. She stabbed him? Yeah, I think so. There's a whole thing at the end of the stairway right here. Yeah, crime scene blood everywhere. Hello, ma'am. You know where you're at? Hello? Hey, you hear us? I know you know more than what you're telling us. I can see it in you. Every time you get to a point, you start breathing heavy. The incident began around 11 p.m. on March 23rd, 2022, when the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office responded to a scene of a thunderous car crash in Jensen Beach, Florida. The accident occurred on Indian River Drive, a scenic stretch of roadway that traces the shoreline along the western bank of the Indian River Lagoon. 21-year-old Leah Michelle Day was driving like a maniac. Ferdeling along the high rate of speed and barely missing other vehicles as she raced past them, then she lost control of her car. Her Honda Civic slammed into an oak tree and flipped several times according to witnesses. The bang was so loud that the sheer force of the crash drew people out of their homes to find out what caused the impact. Leah Day managed to extricate herself from her demolished car by climbing out a window, disoriented and upset she didn't stick around for long. Witnesses who called 911 to report the accident told operators that they saw her flee on foot. Police officers soon arrived and began investigating the incident. "Where's the driver? Where's the driver?" "He went to eat the car?" "He went to a girl." "He said she went that way." "I didn't see nobody walking. Anybody see the girl take off?" "What was she wearing?" "So she climbed out of the car. She was really disoriented. She's like I need to find my phone." "And I was like you need to sit down." "She had to cut it on her hands." "I got to find my purse." "She would be blank." "She just ran that way." Witnesses to the accident described the vehicle's erratic path of travel before it wrecked. "Where were you at?" "So we were in this car and there we were in this car and we were coming this way." "35 miles an hour." "She passed." "She was heading this way." "She was heading south on the right." "Coming through the woods and then came in the bus." "About two or three times." "So you seen her lose control?" "Oh yeah." "Is she striking?" "She hit us." "Right?" "Yeah." "So she went into the bushes, okay?" "Okay." "Are you trying to get her to stop and not be?" "Yeah, I was trying to get her to sit down." "So I'm going to find my phone." "I need to get a key phone." While Deputy Guerrero stayed on the road speaking with bystanders, two other St. Lucie County police officers were in hot pursuit of the suspect. Deputy John Leckonbush went down to the water's edge and began tracking a set of bare footprints in the sand. But the fugitive had a head start. So Deputy Cody Colangelo got in his police car and drove about a mile north to start walking from there. The plan was for the two officers to walk along the beach towards each other, effectively boxing in the runaway drivers so they could apprehend her. How you doing? Sheriff's office. How are we doing? Did you guys see a girl come down here? "We did." "I'm in a big car that air." "Awesome. Thank you." "Yeah, well I got somebody in a car ahead in that way." "I saw if she doubles back then, though. Not yet." "Maybe. That's low tide. I think I'll be alright." What started out as a fairly routine traffic call quickly escalated into a life-threatening situation when Deputy Colangelo encountered the suspect on the beach. He approached her with a friendly tone of wanting to help, but he wasn't vigilant enough to head off what happened next. "Oh." "Go ahead." "Okay, 23." "Hello." "What's going on?" "Man, stop real quick." "Crossway 10 towards the signal free driver." "What's going on?" "I don't know." "You don't know?" "No." "All right." "Where are you just in a crash?" "Man, come up here. Don't walk away." "No, no walking. Come over here." "Okay." "Walk upstairs, alright. Let's get out this water area." "I don't want to." "You scared." "All right, let's walk up here. Let's get off this water, okay?" "Don't run. It's the only walk." "That's something traffic." "That's something to stop." "And so give me traffic. I'm pleading." "Show me." "She ran in the woods somewhere. Can we rescue you?" "Where you kill?" Leah J stabbed Deputy Colangelo with a black butterfly knife. After he was stabbed, the deputy fired one shot at Leah, but he missed. While he waited for backup to arrive, he kept his position while simultaneously applying pressure to the wound on his neck. The moment that Cody Colangelo's distress call was transmitted over the radio, Cody Leckinbush's shoreline walk turned into a full-tilt run as he hurried to get to the scene of the attack. "That's a nice shot." "I'm gonna get a fucker here." "Push it." "I'm out of here." "I'm gonna get a fucker here." "It's a nice, right?" "Yeah." "It's a nice shot." "It's a nice shot." "Yeah." She's down by the water. 12, 4, 7, 9 across the street. 12, 4, 7, 9 by the water. "We have her." "We don't have her." "We don't have her. She's in the water." "You better come out here and stay on the fuck on the ground." "Get over here." "Yeah, we're trying to get her to come back on the water." "Get over here." "Get over here." "Yeah, yeah." "Walk to the side of my voice." "You better not have that knife rock fucking shoot you right now." "Keep going. Keep coming." "I gotta get on the ground." After the officers got Leah Day out of the water, she was initially cooperative. But then she laid down on the ground and refused to walk. "She's awake now." I don't think she's gonna be a patient though they just need help getting her up yes not us I think you guys are already out I think she stabbed him yeah there's a whole big at the end of this step up this right right here yeah crime scene blood everywhere 22-year-old deputy Galangelo was transported to the HCA lawnwood hospital and rushed into surgery Leia's butterfly knife had nicked his carotid artery a major vessel that supplies blood to the brain vascular surgeon dr. Christopher Benette harvested a piece of vein from Cody's leg and used it as a patch by oversawing the hole made by the knife doctor Benette said that if the weapon had pierced deputy Kalangelo's neck in an upward rather than downward trajectory he probably wouldn't have made it to the hospital alive he added that Kalangelo's quick action of applying pressure to his own wound was the most important factor in saving his life and made it possible for him to make it to the hospital as the medical team worked to repair the damage to the deputy's neck deputy Guerrero spoke with a detective outside the hospital about what had happened that night the attack was especially upsetting for him because he is close friends with deputy Kalangelo he stayed by his friend's side in the ambulance reassuring him that he was going to survive maybe you get to my patrol vehicle go northbound at which point I would say Cody was approximately a mile mile and a half north of us all in route I observed neck and bush running towards the scene and direction of Cody deputy Kalangelo I stopped I he got into the I told him to get in he got into the back of my patrol the rear to my patrol vehicle and we took off and the deputy Kalangelo I then observed deputy Kalangelo standing up and there was blood all over his chest coming from his neck area he was holding pressure I believe two hands what he told me as I went to go make contact with her and she turned around and stabbed me he pointed in the direction which was on the eastern east direction he's like she's in the woods at this point me in neck and bush the neck and bush drawer service weapon and start calling commands out and her to come out with a hands up Leah Day was also taken to a hospital she was transported to the St. Lucie Medical Center to be checked for crash-related injuries and possible impairment by narcotics or alcohol due to her erratic behavior hey hey wake up you know where you're at huh do you know where you're at I'm Detective Dale with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office do you know where you're at do you know what you're at what's your name you okay what's your first name after Leah Day was released from the hospital she was interrogated by St. Lucie County detectives but the interview didn't yield much information miss Day only gave bare-bone answers for most of the nearly one-hour interview that is if she answered their questions at all still trying to figure out why it happened what made you panic to only you can answer the panic you were there you know it was obviously something made you panic and that's what we're trying to figure out you know you don't seem like a bad person you know go around doing stuff so something made you panic and that's what we're trying to figure out do you remember doing anything do you remember doing anything your actions okay so then what happened when you wanted to get away like did he grab you did he touch you okay you keep saying whatever I ask you while this happened you keep saying you don't know that you don't know why you don't know why are you saying you don't know why you would stop somebody or you don't know what I definitely don't know why I would stop somebody okay and that's and that's what we're trying to figure out like what made you panic I know you remember something you're breathing heavy insurance I don't have any you don't have no insurance so having no insurance that's what made you run from a vehicle okay have you ever been in jail before no okay so tonight were you scared to go to jail because of the car accident okay so you leave the scene of the accident because you don't have insurance and you're scared that you're going to go to jail you obviously remember enough okay I know that you know that okay what we need now is to clear all this up and make sense of everything okay would you agree because right now there's it's just it's not making sense because you remember specific things and then you don't remember so the interaction help us understand just tell me what happened you're gonna feel a lot better once you start talking leave me you're gonna feel better I know you know more than what you're telling us I can see it in you every time you get to a point you start reading heavy what you're supposed to say is I just want you to tell me what happened with the interaction with the guy with the light on the beach okay so what did you do to try to get away okay and then after he stabbed him what'd you do okay deputy Kalangelo also faced a police interview a week after the crash detectives questioned him as part of their criminal use of force investigation he was asked to explain the circumstances that led him to discharge his service weapon many internal police investigations focus on why an officer used excessive force but not Not in this case, investigators wanted to know why Deputy Colangelo took just one shot at the suspect. "How many shots did you fire? One round. One round. After you fired the one round, did you think about firing another round or why or why did you not fire another round?" At that point, because she started getting up the stairs and I felt like if I was to continue shooting I could put somebody else in it, I didn't have a good enough angle and shot, I felt like I didn't have a good enough time to explain it, to be able to get another round safely off towards her without putting a risk of anybody else. "Anybody else meeting your background?" "Background yes, cars are still traveling up and down, any river drive during those hours." The detectives wanted to know if Deputy Colangelo thought he took all appropriate officer safety precautions to protect himself. "Are you alarmed or let me ask you, did you ever ask to see her hands?" "No." "Okay." "You're watching a video, initially she's down on the beach." "Do you remember where her hands were?" "When I first saw her, I heard a little bit of a black wallet in her hand, when I first walked up on the dog and she didn't find her hand when she was just walking around my first saw her, so I didn't see any type of weapon." "When she got worried, she was down at the bottom of the deck where were her hands at the time?" "Behind her back." "Okay." "When she walked past you and you were following her, where did her hands go?" "She started off towards the front." "Okay." "But could you actually see the palms of her hands?" "No." "At that point, did anything cause any alarm in you in the fact that she was standing like this in the video?" "No." "When she passed, she kind of moved them around, did it cause any alarm or concern?" "At the time, no, because she appeared to be under the influence of something. I assumed that she was just heaven only when you deal with someone on our car, so at least they're my experience. They have weird fidgetings with their body, and that's where all the students going on." "Okay." Around the same time Cody Colangelo was answering questions in the criminal use of force investigation, detectives were canvassing residents around the scene of the accident. They also walked the crime scene to piece together more details of what had happened. Detectives also canvassed witnesses in the neighborhood about what they saw and heard that night. They stopped at a house of a man named Dean, the same person who was sitting on his dock with a friend when he saw Leah run by that night. "She went down to the beach, and we were sitting down here on our dock. So she walked up, right at our feet basically, and we didn't talk to her, because she was, she's sort of staggering a little bit, and she stopped at the end of the dock and sort of did a 360 and then kept going." Deputy Colangelo then came down and said, "Did you see anybody come by here?" And he said, "Yes, there is a young woman, she just walked by, and she had been the only one there, so you can find her footprints there, they're the only ones, they'll take you right to her." "Okay." "So we've followed her down there, and I offered to hold the shoes for her, but you see, I'm telling you, I'm telling you." It is still a mystery why Leah Day stabbed Cody Colangelo that spring night in 2022. Prosecutors didn't cite any prior history of violent criminal behavior. In December of 2019, Leah was charged with misdemeanor petty theft. In August of 2021, she was ticketed for not having proof of insurance, and her driver's license was suspended as a result. This lack of insurance for her vehicle was the only reason Leah ever provided as a motive for stabbing Deputy Colangelo. She was scared that she would have to go to jail, and although she would have been in some trouble had she remained at the scene of the crash, and peacefully faced the consequences, the punishments would have been comparatively minor. In April of 2024, a jury convicted 23-year-old Leah Michelle Day of attempted first degree premeditated murder of Cody Colangelo. She was sentenced to life in prison.