Kaufman County sheriff's deputies said they arrested a woman who stole an ambulance and led them on a high-speed chase Tuesday.
Investigators said the woman, later identified as 34-year-old Jennifer Lee Luke, was a patient in the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman Tuesday afternoon. Kaufman police said she went outside of the ER, saw the CareFlite ambulance running, jumped in it and sped away.
A witness told NBC 5 she thought it was paramedics heading to an emergency, because the ambulance was going so fast.
“She was driving, speeding. She was like almost on two wheels going around the corner,” said the witness, who asked not to be identified.
According to officials, Luke had already struck two vehicles with the ambulance before nearby police arrived and began following her through the city of Kaufman. She also ran a stop sign, drove the wrong way on a one-way street and nearly struck several pedestrians.
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Deputies put spike strips on the road, causing the ambulance's tires to blow, which eventually brought the 25-minute pursuit to an end between the towns of Lively and Kemp on Farm-to-Market Road 148.
Police took Luke into custody at the scene. She faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, evading arrest, theft and striking an unattended vehicle.
There were no reports of any injuries.
"Luck has a little bit to do with it," Kaufman Police Chief Dana Whitaker said. "It is a situation where you never know what will happen in a police chase."
NBC 5 contacted a CareFlite representative, who explained it is standard operating procedure for the ambulance to be running outside of an emergency room to get patients in and out as quickly as possible.
NBC 5's Julie Fine and Todd L. Davis contributed to this report.
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