Police captain testifies about getting shot and fearing 
being run over by a stolen police cruiser

06/28/00
GARY McELROY - Mobile, AL - Register Staff Reporter

A police captain who prosecutors say was lucky not
to have become cop-killer Mario Centobie's second
murder victim in a 1998 crime spree took the stand
Tuesday in Mobile County Circuit Court.

Capt. Cecil Lancaster of the Tuscaloosa police
department told jurors about getting shot twice and
fearing he would be run down by a stolen police
cruiser. He also testified he was unable to identify
Centobie as the man who tried to kill him. 

Centobie, 34, already condemned to die for the
shooting death of a Moody police officer in a
separate but similar incident during the same 1998
time period, is on trial in Mobile charged with
attempted murder, first-degree burglary and first-
degree theft of property.

In June 1998, Centobie and a fellow inmate being
transported to court from a Mississippi state prison
overpowered a sheriff and another man and made
off in a police cruiser.

They got as far as Tuscaloosa before being spotted
by Lancaster.

The police captain said he was headed home that
June afternoon when he spotted two men in a
Mississippi police cruiser coming up beside him.

Lancaster said he first noticed a back bumper missing
from the cruiser - as it turned out it was already torn
off before the escape - and that the men did not look
like officers.

Lancaster said he was not aware of the Mississippi
escape that had occurred a few hours earlier.

Defense attorney Eric Snow asked Lancaster during
cross-examination why he became suspicious if the
men didn't "make any gestures" toward him.

"If anything, it was the gestures they didn't have that
aroused my attention," Lancaster said, describing the
men as somewhat comically staring stiffly straight
ahead rather than looking over as they neared him.

Lancaster said he pulled out in front and purposely
slowed down. As he slowed, the men in the cruiser
also slowed, he said.

"I told myself I was going to make them pass me,"
Lancaster testified and finally, at about 40 mph, they
did.

Shortly afterward, he said, he turned on his blue light
and pulled them over.

As he approached the cruiser on foot and was about
even with the back driver's side window, the captain
said, the passenger - who prosecutors contend was
Centobie -whipped around with a semiautomatic
pistol and opened fire through the door glass. The
first .45-caliber slug caught him in his utility belt,
Lancaster said. As he was falling, a second shot tore
through his side and exited his back.

As he lay on the road, Lancaster said, he saw the
cruiser's tail lights come on as the car was thrown
into reverse. He said he believed the men in the 
cruiser intended to run him over. He drew his service
weapon and opened fire, getting off seven shots. 
The stolen cruiser sped away.

Lancaster's wife and young son were in the
courtroom Tuesday and listened intently as he
described the events and what happened next.

At first, Centobie busied himself with whispered
conferences at his defense table, but soon he too
appeared enthralled with what Lancaster was saying.

"The adrenaline was pumping, the pain, I knew I was
running on adrenaline," Lancaster was saying. "The
blood hit the ground in front of me and my knees
buckled."

Lancaster said he never saw the man's face who shot
him, but knew in a split second what he had in his
hand as he turned around from the front passenger
seat of the cruiser.

"It would be fair to say my total concentration was
on that weapon," Lancaster said,

Before the men were captured a short time later -
Centobie was captured days later in south Mississippi
- he killed another police officer during a similar
stop.

Still under heavy security, the trial was expected to
resume today at 8:30 a.m. in courtroom 4100 at
Mobile Government Plaza.


Copyright 2000 Mobile Register


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