Stolen ambulance chase across El Paso ends in crash on Gateway North Boulevard
A police pursuit of a stolen El Paso Fire Department ambulance rushed down several streets before ending in a crash with one person in custody, police said.
Alasia Pamela Humber, 28, of Central El Paso, was arrested on charges of theft of a vehicle over $300,000 and felony evading arrest in a vehicle, police said. She is being held on a total bond of $130,000 at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown.
The ambulance, named Rescue 17, was stolen after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 2, from the Del Sol Medical Center Emergency Room on the East Side, El Paso Fire Department spokesman Enrique Dueñas-Aguilar said.
"Fortunately, there was nobody in the ambulance when it was taken, when it was stolen," Dueñas-Aguilar said, explaining that the two-person crew was away from the vehicle and there was no patient on board.
The woman who drove away in the ambulance was not a patient and authorities looked into how she gained access to the emergency vehicle, Dueñas-Aguilar said.
An investigation found that Humber was at the hospital when she walked into the ambulance bay, entered the vehicle and drove away, a police news release stated.
After the ambulance was taken, an alert was issued to all units to be on the lookout, police said. A motorcycle officer saw the ambulance at Emerson Street and North Loop Drive in the Lower Valley and a chase began.
Videos shared on social media showed a line of El Paso police and Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles with lights flashing chasing the ambulance down streets of the far East Side.
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The pursuit ended when the ambulance crashed into a rock wall outside an apartment building at Gateway North Boulevard and Altura Avenue next to the Patriot Freeway in Central El Paso. No injuries were reported, Dueñas-Aguilar said.
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A police spokesman said one person was taken into custody. El Paso police and Fire Department officials are investigating the ambulance theft and assessing the damage to the emergency vehicle.
Brand new ambulances can range in cost from $800,000 to $1 million, but Rescue 17 is not a new ambulance. The damage to the crashed ambulance is being evaluated by mechanics, Dueñas-Aguilar said.
Police reported that the 2020 ambulance is valued at $330,000.
The Fire Department will be looking at its protocols and procedures to help secure its emergency vehicles, Dueñas-Aguilar added.
El Paso ambulance stolen in 2017
In a similar incident in 2017, an EPFD ambulance was stolen by a patient outside the emergency room at Providence Memorial Hospital leading to a 90-minute police chase across El Paso.
According to El Paso County court records, Michial Bruce Sampson was given a two-year suspended sentence in state jail and five years probation after pleading guilty to a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Charges of evading arrest in a vehicle and theft over $150,000 were dismissed.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Stolen ambulance chase across El Paso ends in crash
