An Ambulance Stolen From a Fort Worth Fire Station Ended in a Fatal Shooting 190 Miles Away

An ambulance stolen from a Fort Worth fire station Wednesday night led authorities on a roughly 190-mile pursuit down Interstate 35 that ended Thursday morning in a crash and a fatal shooting in Austin, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The Fort Worth Fire Department said the ambulance was taken Wednesday night from Station Four, off Mansfield Road in Fort Worth.

The pursuit

The chase ran down I-35 from North Texas into Austin, according to reporting by KXAN, the NBC affiliate in Austin.

During the pursuit, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, the driver began intentionally ramming multiple vehicles on the interstate.

"Troopers did attempt to hit the ambulance, but those attempts were unsuccessful," DPS said.

How it ended

The pursuit ended in a crash and shooting on the upper deck of I-35 near central Austin. DPS confirmed the driver was shot and later pronounced dead. Authorities had not released the person's identity as of Thursday morning.

Austin-Travis County EMS said it responded to the scene around 7:10 a.m. Thursday and took one adult to a hospital with minor injuries. How that person was injured had not been confirmed.

At the scene, the Fort Worth ambulance could be seen blocked in by DPS vehicles.

The aftermath in Austin

Austin Police said the upper deck of I-35 would be closed for several hours Thursday because of the investigation. The Texas Department of Transportation said all southbound lanes of I-35 between US-183 and Airport Boulevard were closed Thursday morning, including both the upper and lower decks.

The Fort Worth Fire Department has not said how the ambulance came to be taken from the station, and questions about the sequence of events between the theft and the pursuit remained unanswered Thursday morning.

Source: KXAN Austin, reporting by Julianna Russ.

Sources

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/active-law-enforcement-incident-shuts-down-upper-deck-of-i-35/