{"id":406297,"date":"2026-08-14T08:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T08:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/406297\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T08:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T08:36:08","slug":"trooper-fatally-shoots-driver-of-stolen-fort-worth-ambulance-after-i-35-chase-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/406297\/","title":{"rendered":"Trooper fatally shoots driver of stolen Fort Worth ambulance after I-35 chase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A TxDPS trooper fatally shot the driver of a stolen Fort Worth Fire\/EMS ambulance Thursday morning after the driver led law enforcement on a chase down I-35 and intentionally rammed multiple vehicles, closing the upper deck of the interstate for hours.<\/p>\n<p>DPS said troopers were notified at 6:30 a.m. that a Fort Worth Fire\/EMS ambulance had been stolen and was traveling southbound on I-35 in Williamson County.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;DPS troopers located the ambulance and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. When troopers activated their emergency lights, the driver refused to stop and began actively evading law enforcement,&#8221; said Sgt. Jason Galaviz with Texas DPS.<\/p>\n<p>As the ambulance continued south near U.S. 290 in Austin, the driver began intentionally ramming multiple civilian vehicles, according to DPS. Troopers attempted to perform a PIT maneuver to stop the vehicle, but those efforts were unsuccessful, DPS said.<\/p>\n<p>As the pursuit continued DPS says the danger was escalating.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The driver began intentionally ramming multiple civilian vehicles,&#8221; said Galaviz.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/aisd-reports-5th-failing-accountability-grade-at-two-schools-opening-takeover-pathway\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO| AISD reports 5th failing accountability grade at two schools, opening takeover pathway<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A trooper then discharged a firearm, striking the driver, DPS said. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. The person&#8217;s identity had not been released.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Rangers are on scene and are actively investigating the officer-involved shooting, DPS said. <\/p>\n<p>For drivers who regularly travel Austin&#8217;s roads, the chaos of the situation was unsettling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I drive for a living. Like I do home health physical therapy all around town. So, it&#8217;s really scary to have somebody like that on the roads who is slamming people or causing harm to others. So just crazy,&#8221; said Austin resident Victoria Daacon.<\/p>\n<p>The closure was first announced by the Austin Police Department shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday. APD initially described it as an &#8220;active law enforcement&#8221; incident involving DPS and later updated its post to say the roadway would be closed from U.S. 183 into downtown Austin.<\/p>\n<p>DPS said the southbound upper deck of I-35 will remain closed until the investigation is complete. <\/p>\n<p>Police have urged drivers to avoid the area and use alternate routes.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Rangers are leading the investigation into how a Fort Worth ambulance was stolen and what happened in the moments before the DPS trooper fired the fatal shot.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A TxDPS trooper fatally shot the driver of a stolen Fort Worth Fire\/EMS ambulance Thursday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-406297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}