Stunning UPS Driver kept calm after carjacking and police chase

San Jose police shooting: Abducted UPS driver hailed for thwarting carjackers during chase

The Mercury News
By ROBERT SALONGA
PUBLISHED: February 15, 2019

Matthew O’Connor, a spokesman for UPS, declined to identify the driver or comment on his actions, but said the company was providing support for him and for other employees who work with him. “We’re giving our driver some privacy after yesterday’s incident, and we’re offering grief counseling to the driver and our other employees in the area,” he said.

SAN JOSE — A UPS driver abducted during a carjacking on Thursday is being lauded for having nerves of steel.

The armed carjackers seized his delivery truck and forced him to drive it, with law enforcement officers in pursuit. But he drove slowly so that the police could keep up and then, in an attempt to derail his captors’ escape, purposely hit the metal spikes officers had placed on the road.

“When you are accosted, taken at gunpoint, and made to drive, like something that comes out in the movies, you can’t train for the calmness that man had,” San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
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More to the story of police chase stolen armored personnel carrier

This is the headline

CRAZY CHASE: Soldier steals armored vehicle from National Guard base, police say

But this should have been,

Yabut is a first lieutenant assigned as the company commander of the 276th Engineer Battalion and has more than 11 years of service. He deployed to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009 with the Illinois National Guard, according to the Guard.

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High Speed Chase Started at Joint Base Lewis McChord

Police: Wash. man who threatened 'Vegas-style assault' was driving 120 mph

KATU 2 News
Bob Heye
October 6, 2017

Authorities also said Bleavins "was suicidal, had a head injury and PTSD," the acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bleavins is retired from the US Army.

KELSO, Wash. — Police say a Washington man who led police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 Wednesday and threatened a "Vegas-style assault" was driving in excess of 120 miles per hour. The chase began around 4 p.m. at Joint Base Lewis-McChord military installation south of Tacoma and ended near Kelso.

According to court documents, military police at the base said 35-year-old Christopher Bleavins was "threatening a Vegas style assault" when he fled, almost hitting officers on his way out.

Cowlitz County Sheriff's deputies picked up the chase as it headed south on I-5 near Kelso, Bleavins' car dodging in and out of freeway traffic, sometimes slamming on its breaks in front of other drivers then speeding off again, according to authorities.
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LA High Speed Chase Driver Was Trained By Marines

SUSPECT IN WILD LA CHASE WAS TRAINED MILITARY DRIVER, PENTAGON SAYS
Eyewitness ABC 7 News
By Miriam Hernandez and ABC7.com staff
Friday, April 08, 2016

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The driver who led police on a wild chase through Los Angeles on Thursday was a trained vehicle operator for the U.S Marine Corps, the Pentagon confirmed.

According to military personnel information from the Marine Corps, 20-year-old Herschel Reynolds served in the Marines from April 22, 2014 to Jan. 13, 2016. He was ranked as a private, and although he was never deployed, he was decorated with the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, records show.

Reynolds was trained at Camp Pendleton as a Marine Corps motor vehicle operator.
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Chaos Followed Call to Help Suicidal Veteran

Dashcam video shows Marine veteran pulled from car window after police chase
MLIVE.com
Molly Young
June 5, 2015

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MI -- A man facing charges stemming from a carjacking and attempted abduction in March is a Marine veteran who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, his attorney says.

A video The Flint Journal obtained from Michigan State Police through the Freedom of Information Act shows the police chase that ensued, and the man's arrest after police dragged him out of a car window.

Events began to unfold when a woman called 911 saying her son was suicidal, highly intoxicated and suffering from PTSD, according to Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser.

The call put local police on the lookout for Michael Siminski, a 30-year-old Marine veteran from Owosso driving a white Chevrolet pickup truck.
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Fort Hood Soldier from Florida died after police chase

Fort Hood Soldier Dies After Police Chase
KWTX.com
Nick Delgado
January 22, 2014

DPS confirmed the driver was a Fort Hood soldier from Florida.

BELL COUNTY (January 22, 2014) Department of Public Safety troopers are investigating why a Fort Hood soldier led police on a high speed chase through Copperas Cove and Killeen just before midnight that ended in a deadly crash.

The chase started in Copperas Cove after Cove police got a call about a reckless driver, said Harpin Myers, DPS spokesman.

"They checked the vehicle on radar at 97 miles an hour," he said.

Cove and Killeen police partnered during the pursuit, as the driver of a gray 2013 Hyundai headed east on US Highway 190.

"One of our units checked the vehicle running at over 100 miles an hour out on Texas 201," Myers said.
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Marine, Vietnam Vet killed when police chase suspect runs light

Marine, Vietnam vet dies as driver fleeing police crushes vehicle
WTVR News
April 1, 2013
by Alix Bryan and Jon Burkett

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR)- Marine and Vietnam veteran George Van Orden lost his life in a tragic car accident on Midlothian Turnpike Friday night.

His oldest son tells CBS 6 that his dad lived the corps instilled values until the very end, even though he was decades removed from military service.

George Van Orden, age 73, pulled two tours in Vietnam. He was considered an expert marksman while serving in the corps-spending his retirement years in Chesterfield County “Probably one of the most patriotic people you’d ever meet in your entire life,” his son said.

Van Orden– a husband, a father, a grandfather– had just finished dinner with his wife and daughter Friday night. His daughter headed off to the movies and he and his wife got in the car to return home.

Police said Van Orden had a green light when he pulled onto Midlothian Turnpike; only to be broad sided by a driver fleeing from police.
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Military, the only job you can't just quit

I keep arguing with people when they bring up "non-deployed" soldiers committing suicide. They cannot seem to understand that just going into the military can be very traumatic for these young "adults" unprepared for the reality of combat training against playing war on a computer game. They think they are ready for it. Most of them are.

They are wired differently, able to put others first to the point where they are willing to die for their sake, endure every hardship and follow orders, ready, willing and able to be sent across the world for what this country says they need to do.

Among the many things we don't talk about is that the jobs in the military are not jobs these young "adults" can just quit. They get out of high school thinking it may be a cool job to have then when they realize they have made a huge mistake getting in way over their heads, they cannot just walk away. They will lose a lot when their record will follow them the rest of their lives.

We take jobs all the time we end up hating fast. We either don't show up for work or we give our notice and go work for some other company. For them, it is a totally different story with a very tragic outcome.

The case of Marine recruit changing his mind in just four days, escaping and then being chased by police,  shows just how hard it is for them to change their minds.

Marine recruit arrested at San Diego airport after mad dash to freedom from boot camp
A 22-year-old Marine recruit apparently had second thoughts about going through with boot camp. The man scaled two fences, one topped with barbed wire, before being arrested at a nearby San Diego airport. Police say this isn’t the first time a Marine recruit attempted an escape from the training facility.
BY DAVID KNOWLES
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013

Perhaps “Semper Infidelis” would be a better motto for this Marine.

A Marine Corps recruit proved anything but faithful on Thursday when he scaled several fences and attempted an escape from boot camp.

Police arrested the 22-year-old recruit, who has not been identified by name, at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, an airport that borders the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

After scaling two fences, one of which was topped with barbed wire, the newly conscripted Marine darted across the tarmac shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, and hid in a janitor’s van near the Southwest Airlines terminal.
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Phoenix Suspect Shoots Self In Head On Live Fox

Video is available at the link below. Not posting it. Too graphic even though Huffington Post blocked the actual suicide.

Car Chase Suicide: Phoenix Suspect Shoots Self In Head On Live Fox
News Feed After 100 MPH Pursuit
The Huffington Post
By Andy Campbell
Posted: 09/28/2012

The vehicle that the suspect allegedly stole before shooting himself in the head. A long car chase with a Dodge Caliber in Phoenix, Ariz., ended with the suspect shooting himself in the head on live TV, appearing to commit suicide.

The driver, recorded live news helicopters, led law enforcement on a dangerous chase, traveling at speeds of nearly 100 mph.

Around 3:30 p.m. ET, at the end of the hour-long pursuit, he drove off the road, got out of his car and ran down a dirt path for a short period. He then appeared to shoot himself in the head and collapsed.

Fox News quickly cut away from the shot and went to commercial after the gruesome incident. Host Shepard Smith immediately apologized for airing what looked like a suicide.
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Fort Hood Sgt. died after high speed chase

Local Man Killed When Truck Hit Tree During Police Chase Identified
KWTX
HARKER HEIGHTS
July 30, 2012
A man who died when his truck crashed into a tree as he attempted to elude Harker Heights Police early Saturday morning was identified Monday as Fort Hood Sgt. Timothy Stephens, 28, of McMinnville, Ore.

Stephens died after a chase that started just after 2 a.m. Saturday when Harker Heights Police attempted to pull over a speeding and swerving truck in the 300 block of Indian Trail Drive.

At first the driver appeared to be stopping, but then the truck sped up and headed onto Clore Road, police said.
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Fort Hood soldier leads police on high-speed chase

KILLEEN
Fort Hood soldier leads police on high-speed chase

Posted: Sep 22, 2011 9:54 PM EDT

By: Nicole Jacobsen

KILLEEN - A Fort Hood soldier was arrested Thursday after he led police officers on a high-speed car chase through three cities.

It started when police responded to a domestic disturbance call just before 5 a.m. in the 300 block of Goodnight Drive. When officers arrived, Travis Edward Bell fled the scene in a red Dodge pickup truck.
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Fort Lewis combat medic is dead after chase, wife and son found dead

Man dies from gunshot after I-5 police chase; wife, son also dead
A Fort Lewis combat medic is dead, along with his wife and 5-year-old son, in what appears to be a bizarre murder-suicide pieced together following a high-speed police chase on south Interstate 5 near Tumwater.

By Sara Jean Green and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters

Three members of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord family are dead after an Army combat medic killed himself and his wife, and police found the body of the couple's 5-year-old son in their Spanaway home, according to police and the military.

Authorities identified the soldier as 38-year-old David F. Stewart, who shot himself in the head as his disabled car was approached by a Washington State Patrol trooper after a high-speed chase along Interstate 5 near Tumwater, Thurston County. In the passenger seat was the body of his wife, Kristy Sampels, also 38, who also had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday, said Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock.

Officials said the woman appeared to have been ill.

The child was found in the couple's home in Spanaway, Pierce County. The medical examiner identified him as Jordan Stewart. The cause of his death was not immediately released.

Sampels' 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage initially was thought to be missing but was found safe with her father in Redmond, Ore., said sheriff's spokesman Detective Ed Troyer.

The bizarre events began just before 6 a.m., when a trooper on routine patrol clocked the driver of a silver Ford Focus going south on I-5 at 85 mph, said Trooper Guy Gill. The trooper pulled his patrol car behind the Focus and turned on his emergency lights in an attempt to pull the vehicle over, he said.

As soon as the car was stopped, the trooper saw the driver — Stewart — lift his hand to his head, a gesture followed by the sound of a gunshot, Gill said. Sampels' body was found in the passenger seat and Gill said it initially did not appear that she had been shot or injured during the collision.

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Man dies from gunshot after I-5 police chase

Man who led police on chase recovers from drug overdose

Man who led police on chase recovers from drug overdose

By JON CAWLEY 247-4635
October 15, 2008
GLOUCESTER - A Gloucester County man wanted on numerous felony charges survived an apparent suicide attempt Sunday, a day after officers called off a wild daytime pursuit because of a danger to other drivers.

Joshua Dustin Horsley, 21, of Owens Road in Guinea, now has 24 felonies and two misdemeanors pending against him — most related to credit card fraud — but has not been formally charged, said Gloucester Sheriff's Office Maj. Darrell Warren.

Horsley was hospitalized Sunday in the intensive care unit of Riverside Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in Gloucester after an unspecified drug overdose. He was transferred Monday to another medical facility, where he is being evaluated, Warren said.

Once he is released, Horsley will be charged with 23 counts of credit card fraud, as well as a felony charge of evading/eluding police and misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and driving on a suspended license that stem from a pursuit late Saturday morning.
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Ex-Marine charged in deaths "wasn't the same after war"

Ex-Marine charged in deaths of 2 in Hollywood police chase 'wasn't the same' after war, sister says
The 29-year-old John Marshall High graduate is accused of striking and killing 2 pedestrians along Hollywood Boulevard as police pursued him. His sister said he had nightmares after Afghanistan.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
9:08 AM PDT, July 16, 2008
A motorist charged with two counts of murder for allegedly striking and killing two pedestrians as police pursued him along Hollywood Boulevard was a former Marine, a relative said.

A graduate of John Marshall High School, Sergio Delgado, 29, joined the Marines at 19, was stationed at Camp Pendleton and served in Afghanistan in 2001, said his sister, who asked not to be named when reached at her Los Angeles apartment.

Delgado married and had a son before he was discharged a few years ago, she said.

Delgado, who sometimes uses the name Delgado Valle, also faces two counts of felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and fleeing the scene after fatally hitting the man and woman.

"He was so intoxicated when he was arrested he had to be hospitalized," said Cmdr. Debra McCarthy of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Delgado, who was convicted of driving under the influence in 2003 and of illegally driving in a bus lane in 2006, was being held on $1-million bail.

Delgado was a changed man after he returned from serving overseas, his sister said. He had nightly nightmares, drank and argued with his wife. He refused to discuss his problems while he was sober until his wife left last year, and he sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, his sister said. He began taking medication and found a job in the San Fernando Valley at a mortgage brokerage firm. He recently moved closer to his job and was helping to care for his 5-year-old son, his sister said.
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