Stolen ambulance crashes, naked suspect in custody

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This article was published 29/05/2020 (1978 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A stolen ambulance driven by a naked man crashed into the side of a West End cultural centre Friday morning, forcing pedestrians to flee from its path.

Paramedics were checking on a man near Notre Dame Avenue and Furby Street around 8:30 a.m., when he became aggressive and violent, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Chief John Lane told reporters.

The suspect managed to get control of the ambulance, and then drove erratically before hitting the exterior of the Portuguese Cultural Centre at 659 Young St. Police took him into custody and he was transported to hospital.

“We’re very grateful that nobody — none of our crews and none of the public, apart from the individual in question — suffered any physical injuries in this incident,” Lane said.

A witness said the man was naked; another source told the Free Press the suspect appeared to be high on methamphetamine.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Rob Carver said he could not confirm those details.

“I saw a man in an ambulance driving the wrong way on Notre Dame, driving erratically. He (appeared) half-naked at that time, I didn’t realize he was fully naked,” said Cortney Creasy, who works at IBEW Training Centre on Notre Dame.

Creasy said she later spoke to police at the scene, who told her the man was in “psychosis.” She said officers used a Taser on the suspect, but it had no effect.

“He was moving erratically. He couldn’t control his body functions. It didn’t look like he had any control over himself,” she said.

Boretta Construction employee Shawn Flett said he was working on a nearby sidewalk when he saw an ambulance driving the wrong way on Notre Dame Avenue. He and a co-worker had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

“No injuries to us, besides the fear that something could’ve happened if he didn’t have his siren on or anything. It could’ve been a lot worse, but we don’t like to think about that,” Flett said.

Creasy added she was “in a lot of shock” over the incident, saying the street is often busy, and at least 100 people could have been seriously hurt on a different day.

“The scary part was when he got out (of the crashed vehicle) because he was completely naked and you could tell he wasn’t in his right mind, he was talking crazy,” she said.

Lane would not confirm whether the person involved was under the influence of drugs or naked at the time of the incident, citing privacy laws.

“What I will say is that the behaviour and condition of the individual was such that it was obvious that that individual required some help,” the fire chief said.

The most recent high-profile case of a stolen Winnipeg emergency vehicle occurred in November 2019, when a fire truck that had been left running and unattended on the 1600 block of Henderson Highway was hijacked.

The resulting 40-minute chase ended downtown and caused $110,000 in damages and injured one person.

Earlier this month, 36-year-old Bai Koroma was released on bail after being charged with theft of a motor vehicle and several other charges.

— with files from Ruth Bonneville

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_