A 38-year-old Harvey man is behind bars after allegedly stealing an ambulance from outside West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero and leading Jefferson Parish deputies on a chase that ended with the vehicle wedged against a tree stump. No one was hurt in the brief pursuit, which stretched just over a mile down Barataria Boulevard before the ambulance slammed into a fence.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office says deputies responded just before 6 p.m. to a report of a man taking an ambulance from the hospital, located at 1101 Medical Center Boulevard, according to Sgt. Brandon Veal, as reported by NOLA.com. West Jefferson Medical Center is a 419-bed regional non-profit hospital campus managed under LCMC Health that provides round-the-clock emergency services for Westbank residents, according to MDsave. Deputies soon spotted the stolen ambulance near Barataria Boulevard and Patriot Street and activated their lights and sirens, but the driver ignored them and sped south, prompting other deputies to join the chase.
The pursuit lasted just over a mile before the driver lost control of the ambulance in the 5000 block of Eighty Arpent Road. The driver, identified as Brad Stevenson, crashed the ambulance into a fence, and the vehicle became stuck on a tree stump, according to the same NOLA.com report. Deputies then took Stevenson into custody with help from a K-9 officer, Sgt. Veal said.
A Discharge That Turned Into a Theft Charge
According to the sheriff's office account, Stevenson had just been treated and discharged from West Jefferson Medical Center before he allegedly took the ambulance. That detail echoes a pattern seen elsewhere in the region: in June 2021, a 33-year-old New Orleans man was arrested in Gretna after stealing an Acadian Ambulance from outside University Medical Center's emergency department and leading police across the Mississippi River, as reported by WWL-TV. More recently, a New Orleans EMS ambulance was stolen and, after a pursuit, crashed into a civilian SUV in Slidell, sending two SUV occupants to the hospital.
Hospital emergency bays frequently have running emergency transport vehicles parked temporarily during active patient transfers, which can leave them vulnerable. In September 2023, two separate hospital ambulances were stolen in the New Orleans area within a single week, including an Acadian Ambulance Mercedes-Benz Sprinter unit taken from Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson Parish that was later located and recovered in Tangipahoa Parish using built-in GPS telemetry, per Police1. It is not clear from the sheriff's office account whether GPS tracking played a role in locating Stevenson.
Felony Charges Carry Stiffened Penalties
Stevenson was booked with theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated flight from an officer, resisting an officer, and simple criminal damage to property, per NOLA.com's report. He was held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, the primary adult detention facility operated by the sheriff's office, with bail set at $90,500.
The aggravated flight charge carries significant weight under recently toughened state law. Louisiana lawmakers increased the maximum prison sentence for felony aggravated flight from an officer from five years to 10 years at hard labor in August 2024, with exposure rising to 15 years if a pursuit results in serious bodily injury, according to Gilmer & Giglio. Separately, theft of a motor vehicle valued at $25,000 or more is classified as a felony in Louisiana punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines as high as $50,000, under Louisiana Revised Statute 14:67.26, as detailed by Justia.
The resisting an officer charge, a misdemeanor under state law, covers intentionally obstructing or refusing to obey a law enforcement officer carrying out a lawful arrest, and is punishable by up to six months in jail and fines up to $500, according to the Lawrence Law Firm. Resisting is sometimes charged alongside flight-related offenses.
Other reported vehicle pursuits include a stolen-car chase across parish lines.
