SPOKANE VALLEY – A Fire Department emergency medical vehicle was stolen, triggering a 52-mile chase at speeds up to 90 mph that ended in a muddy field in Idaho, officials said.
Jesse Matthew Vasquez, 26, of Moses Lake was jailed for investigation of felonies in Washington state and Idaho, Spokane County sheriff’s Cpl. Dale Toliver said.
The chase began about 6 p.m. Thursday in this suburb east of Spokane after a paramedic and an emergency medical technician left the engine running so the flashing lights would not drain the battery while they attended to an unconscious elderly woman at The Garden, an adult care center.
About 6:30 p.m., the 1999 Chevrolet Suburban passed three Washington State Patrol troopers in a no-passing zone and one, Christopher Holt, verified with dispatchers that it had been stolen.
A Whitman County sheriff’s deputy was placing a spike strip to try to stop the SUV near Tekoa when the Suburban crashed into his cruiser. The deputy was inside his patrol car but escaped serious injury, authorities said.
Vasquez was not injured, but deputies had to break the driver’s side window of the vehicle to remove him, Toliver said.
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