LONGMONT, Colo.—A discharged patient accused of stealing an ambulance, then speeding at up to 100 mph while unknowing drivers yielded the right of way, was arrested Tuesday after he lost control and crashed.
Another ambulance took the man to a hospital under police guard, police spokesman Tim Lewis said.
“We didn’t want another ambulance driving away,” he said.
Mickey Stevenson Terry, 35, had been released from a hospital in Lafayette when he apparently found an ambulance outside the emergency care department, Lewis said. The suspect jumped in the ambulance while its crew was taking another patient inside the building, he said.
Pridemark Paramedic Services President Mike Donner said he had not yet talked to the two EMTs on the ambulance crew about what happened but said it wouldn’t be unusual for a crew to leave the keys inside an unattended ambulance because they have a way to lock the doors and still get inside once they return.
Boulder County sheriff’s deputies stopped the stolen ambulance and spoke to the suspect, but he sped away with lights and siren on, driving 80 to 100 mph as other vehicles yielded to it, Lewis said.
The ambulance came within about 2 feet of hitting an officer on foot who tried to stop cross traffic so the ambulance wouldn’t hit those drivers, Lewis said.
After officers called off the pursuit, the ambulance came to a clogged intersection on Colorado 119 in Longmont, lost control, glanced the front of a stopped car, left the road, hit a median and landed in boulders and broke an axle, Lewis said.
The suspect fled on foot and was detained by citizens. He had leg and rib injuries and lost consciousness at the scene, Lewis said. He was being treated at a Longmont hospital.
Lewis said Terry is from Montana. Lewis did not know his hometown, why he was in Colorado or the possible motive.
He said Terry had originally been taken to a hospital from Weld County on an “unstable mental health hold,” Lewis said.
