Man drives off in stolen patrol car — and responds to 911 call, Colorado cops say
.jpg "A Colorado man was arrested after he was accused of stealing a patrol car from a sheriff’s office and responding to a 911 call.")
A Colorado man broke into a sheriff’s office and stole a patrol car before responding to a 911 call — which led to a high speed chase, authorities said.
In a news release posted on Facebook, the Teller County Sheriff’s Office said the 33-year-old man broke into the Park County Sheriff’s Office in Lake George during the early hours of June 20. At around 3:30 a.m., the man reportedly drove a stolen patrol car toward a location in Teller County, where someone had called 911 and dispatchers put out the information on the sheriff’s office radio channel.
Teller County deputies arrived at the scene and saw the man driving toward them. They ordered him to stop, but he continued to drive away “at a high rate of speed,” the release said. Deputies alerted other local law enforcement agencies to keep an eye out for the stolen patrol car and its driver.
At 5:25 a.m., someone saw the vehicle on U.S. 24 in Divide, and deputies from Teller County and Park County pursued the car, which reached speeds over 110 mph and “committed numerous traffic violations,” the release said.
The car crashed and the driver fled on foot into the woods, the release said, where eputies found him “armed with a knife and [he] was non-compliant.” Deputies deployed a Taser and fired at least one shot and the man was taken into custody and hospitalized with self-inflicted knife wounds, the release said.
No deputies were injured.
The man faces numerous charges, according to the release, including:
Aggravated motor vehicle theft
Vehicular eluding
Impersonating a peace officer
Obstruction
Resisting arrest
Reckless endangerment
Second degree burglary
Reckless driving
At the time of his arrest, the man was on probation for menacing, theft, and driving under the influence, the release said.
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Man drives off in stolen patrol car — and responds to 911 call, Colorado cops say."