By Debbi Farr Baker
San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A 19-year-old man stole an ambulance early Friday morning, led officers on a wild chase, twice rammed a patrol car, and then crashed into a grove of trees, sheriff’s officials reported.
Nicholas A. Harris was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and auto theft, San Diego sheriff’s Lt. Michael Cea said.
Cea said Harris was at Scripps Encinitas Hospital on Santa Fe Road around midnight, being treated for a cut to his foot, when for unknown reasons, he jumped into a Carlsbad Fire Department ambulance that had the keys in it and drove off.
San Diego police said officers spotted him about 12:30 a.m. on Del Mar Heights Road at High Bluff Drive in Carmel Valley, and tried to pull the ambulance over.
But the driver didn’t stop and a pursuit began that wound around and through surface streets at speeds of up to 60 mph, Cea said.
As Harris traveled east on Via de la Valle he rammed a sheriff deputy’s patrol car and then drove onto one of the fields of the San Diego Polo Club off of El Camino Real and rammed the patrol car again, Cea said.
At one point, Harris drove over a spike strip, which flattened at least one of the ambulance’s tires but continued to drive, sometimes swerving, sometimes on the wrong side of the road while turning the headlights on and off, Cea said.
Harris continued to elude officers and was heading east on San Dieguito Road when he reached a gated community on Circa del Norte in Fairbanks Ranch, Cea said.
A security guard saw the approaching ambulance being followed by several patrol cars and opened the gates, Cea said.
Harris eventually ended up on Avenida Arroyo Pasajero, where he crashed into a grove of eucalyptus trees just after 1 a.m, Cea said.
He struggled with officers who shot him with Tasers and then took him into custody, Cea said. He was then taken to the hospital with a cut on his head, Cea said.
Two sheriff’s deputies were injured in the chase. One was hurt as he was placing the spike strip on the road and had to jump out of the way as the ambulance bore down on him; the other was hurt when his patrol car was rammed, Cea said.
Copyright 2007 The San Diego Union-Tribune