COLUMBIA, S.C. —
A patient at Behavioral Three Rivers Health is accused of stealing an ambulance. On Thursday evening, Richland and Kershaw County responded to the chase involving both counties. West Columbia police alerted them.
The suspect is a 50-year-old man who stole a First Priority ambulance. Richland County Deputies spotted the ambulance on Clemson Road and I-20.
“One of our police officers were able to see it on the interstate, put blue lights on it, refused to stop and chase up on I-20, tried to use our stop sticks, which is spike strips, that failed,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
The deputies involved made multiple efforts to stop the ambulance. The suspect drove on the wrong side of I-20. The chase continued into Kershaw County, where the suspect was met with spike strips. The suspect did not stop and kept going.
Kershaw Deputies performed a pit maneuver that stopped the suspect.
Both the police departments were notified by West Columbia Police.
“That quick communication what allowed us to quickly put this to an end because there's no telling what that ambulance would have went and where he was going or what he would have done," Sheriff Lott further said. "We realized that it was a dangerous situation, he needed to be stopped,” Sheriff Lott said. “We do this quite often when we have somebody comes from Kershaw and the Richland, they contact us. We work as a team to get them apprehended the same way. This is not the first time. Won't be the last time that we have operation like this. We train together, communicate together.”