Customer Stories
Just before 4:30 a.m. on May 25, 2025, Officer Dakota Berry was heading westbound on Interstate 10, returning to Goodyear after booking a domestic violence suspect into Maricopa County Jail. Moments earlier, he had circled back to check on a DPS stop on the eastbound side, and found everything under control. Now headed westbound again, it had been an uneventful shift—until it wasn’t.
“I just ended up seeing just this huge orange color, and I thought it was a vehicle fire, so I called it out,” Officer Berry recalled.
A multi-vehicle crash had just happened. Berry jumped from his car, and on the Axon Body 3 camera footage, you can see one car engulfed in flames.
He runs toward the fire as the car’s horn blares—not a continuous drone, but staccato, desperate.
The lone female driver was honking the horn.
“Obviously, it was a sign to go help, and that someone was in the vehicle,” Berry said. “I've been on maybe two or three vehicle fires where the horns are going off. It’s constant. But it wasn’t like that—she was hitting it differently. She did a great job trying to alert someone to help her.”
At the car, Berry could see the driver inside, her back toward the passenger seat, trying to kick out the window. The horn still blaring.
“I ended up running back to my vehicle to get the trauma shears with a glass window breaker. The window shatters, and then she kicks it out. I grabbed onto her and pulled her out through the driver-side window.”
Once she was out, Berry helped extinguish flames on her body. He suffered burns to his own hand during the incident.
But he didn’t stop there. For nearly 12 minutes, Berry managed the scene alone.
His work was methodical—calm in the chaos, reliant on his training.
“Just trying not to get that tunnel vision,” he said. “It was still on the highway, and with so many vehicles, I didn’t want secondary collisions. There was another vehicle that had, I think, three or four other injured parties. So my main goal was just getting everyone off the highway so they didn’t end up getting hit. Then traffic control—getting flares down so we didn’t have other collisions.”
Tolleson Fire was the first to arrive, Berry ran to the engine and briefed them: two immediate patients, one with severe burns.
He would later learn the young woman he pulled from the fire was Ashari Cheatham, the daughter of a Goodyear Fire Department Captain. Ashari suffered burns over 30% of her body and was transported in critical condition.
Additional agencies and departments started to arrive on the scene to help.
But Officer Berry’s collectedness and focus as he worked the crash alone, outside his department’s jurisdiction, did not go unnoticed.
Chief Brian Issitt later watched the body camera footage. “Incredible. The actions that Dakota took—that is what you hope to see from your officers. To see it on body-worn camera—if a picture is worth a thousand words, the video was worth a million. It really shows the bravery, the heroic actions he took in the midst of a completely chaotic scene. He had the wherewithal to help the female who was trapped, but to continue doing his job. He checked on the other people involved in the collision, lit flares with his burned hand—which I know had to hurt—so oncoming traffic would slow down. He was operating like a one-man army until help arrived. And in the midst of all that, he was—as he is today—just calm.”
Berry downplays the heroism.
“That night I was injured, but I didn’t think about stopping,” Berry said. “I was just thinking, ‘Hey, we have to keep going. This is what we signed up to do. This is our job.’ You can’t just stop because you’re injured. You have to keep working until additional units get on scene.”
But for Chief Issitt, there’s no mistaking the courage Berry displayed that night.
“It’s the selfless actions,” the chief said. “One of the things that stuck with me was when they asked Dakota about the rescue, that she was the daughter of a Goodyear firefighter —he was very humble. He just said, ‘I would have done this for any resident.’ And to Dakota’s credit, when he says that, he really means it. If he hadn’t turned around to check on DPS, he would have been way past that wreck. No doubt in my mind—God put him in that moment, at that time, to save Ashari.”
Berry took a week off to recover, at the department’s insistence.
“I’m doing good. Thankfully, just minor burns that healed within a couple of days. I went back on the road last week.”
From a jail drop-off to a highway rescue in minutes, Berry’s path that night was anything but routine. But he was there—exactly when he needed to be.
And today, he’s exactly where he belongs. Back in the field. Back to protecting his community.
According to a recent press conference, with the Goodyear Fire Department, Goodyear Police Department and the Arizona Burn Center, the woman rescued from the burning vehicle, Ashari Cheatham, continues to recover in the hospital. She suffered burns over 30% of her body, has had surgery for her injuries and while she has a long road ahead, is expected to recover. She just finished her first year at Arizona State University. Her goal is to become a physical therapist.
Her father, Goodyear Fire Captain Simeon Cheatham issued this statement after the crash: “On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming love, support and prayers for my daughter as she begins the long journey of recovery following the tragic accident that left her with serious burns. She is a remarkable young woman; courageous, determined and full of life. Even in the face of unimaginable pain and challenge, her resilience shines through. Every day she inspires us with her strength and her will to heal. This road will not be easy, but she has never backed down from adversity. With the continued outpouring of support from our community and with God’s grace, I have no doubt she will rise from this stronger than before. Please continue to keep her in your hearts and prayers as we walk this path with faith, love and hope.”