A man was arrested by the Memphis Police Department after allegedly stealing a police vehicle and fleeing from officers. The incident, occurring just before 6 p.m. yesterday, started when police responded to a call about a suspicious person near a bustling shopping center at Stage Road and Covington Pike. According to Fox13 Memphis, the individual, upon the officers' attempt to approach, decided to flee on foot suddenly and subsequently hijacked a squad car.
The chase ended at James Road and Old Austin Peay, approximately a mile from the original scene. WREG reports that the suspect was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital with injuries described as non-critical. The Memphis Police have not released the suspect's identity involved in the dramatic sequence of events that unfolded.
The details surrounding the circumstances of the theft and the subsequent arrest remain scarce. Patrol units initially converged on a Burlington Coat Factory at the intersection of Stage Road and Covington Pike in Raleigh due to reports of a suspicious individual, later leading to the brief police pursuit. This information was corroborated by WREG, which included a statement that the officers attempted to engage with the man before he ran off and commandeered the police vehicle.
While details may be limited, all sources confirm the arrest and that the suspect has been hospitalized. The motivations behind the man's flight and how he was able to take control of a police unit successfully temporarily will likely be subjects of an ongoing investigation by the Memphis Police Department. As the community looks on, many questions remain unanswered: the protocols that might have been breached, the swift response of the officers involved to recapture one of their vehicles, and the guidelines moving forward to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. This story is developing, and more information is expected to be released pending the MPD's investigation.
