Jailed Alabama man overpowers deputy, flees in stolen ambulance, officials say
Authorities in Alabama were searching Thursday for a jail escapee who overpowered a sheriff’s deputy and stole an ambulance at a hospital Wednesday, officials said.
Phillip Shane Bradford, 45, escaped Wednesday afternoon after he was taken to a Birmingham hospital for treatment, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.
Bradford “managed to overpower the deputy and flee the scene in an unoccupied ambulance,” the office said in a statement.
Online jail records show Bradford was being held as a pretrial inmate. He is charged with first-degree robbery, probation violations, possession of drug paraphernalia and other counts, according to the sheriff’s office.
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Birmingham police found the ambulance abandoned later Wednesday.
Bradford was spotted Thursday morning in Cullman, around 40 miles north of Birmingham, stealing a 2004 silver GMC Envoy from a Walmart parking lot, police in that city told NBC affiliate WVTM of Birmingham.
