A Central Texas man is in custody Tuesday morning after leading police on a chase in a stolen ambulance.
Harker Heights police responded to a call around 4 a.m. Tuesday for a man who appeared to be unresponsive in a vehicle behind a business in the 2000 block of Memory Lane. The Harker Heights Fire Department and EMS personnel were called to check on his condition due to his apparent intoxication.
22-year-old Taylor Patterson was taken into custody for public intoxication. He was placed into double-locked handcuffs and seat-belted into the back of a patrol car to await transport, according to Harker Heights Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Roosevelt Wilson.
At some point, police say, Patterson slipped through the seat belt and stepped through the handcuffs. He then defeated the locked prisoner screen in the patrol car and tried to get ahold of the car's shotgun from its locked rack. He was unsuccessful, but he was able to fire a shot.
Patterson then escaped from the patrol car and stole a Harker Heights ambulance staged at the scene. He did not steal and crash a patrol car, as previously reported.
He collided with several Harker Heights police cars and led police on a chase. The chase ended near the Simmons Road exit on Highway 190 eastbound after he lost control of the ambulance and rolled over.
Patterson was not injured and was taken into custody.
He is at the Bell County Adult Detention Center with several charges pending.
The Killeen Police Department, the Belton Police Department, and the Bell County Sheriff's Department assisted the Harker Heights Police Department.
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