A Texas man was arrested after he was speeding in a stolen pickup truck on a South Carolina highway before the engine caught fire, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
A deputy patrolling Interstate 95 on the morning of June 25 spotted a pickup truck traveling northbound in excess of the speed limit. The deputy’s radar recorded it at 94 mph, the sheriff’s office said.
The officer pursued the truck whose driver was “driving recklessly,” including passing other vehicles on the shoulder of the road. During the chase, the truck’s engine caught fire and sprayed fuel on the officer’s car. The truck then drove off the road at mile marker 140 and crashed into a fence along the highway.
The deputy ran to the vehicle to rescue the man and take him into custody, but another deputy who arrived on scene saw the man running away along the fence and then across the highway into a wooded area.
More officers and K-9 teams arrived and began searching for the man. They found him hiding in a ditch, where he was arrested.
Donald Edward Reed Jr., 33, of Prairie Grove, Texas, was charged with disregarding a blue traffic light, driving 30 mph over the speed limit and hitting objects on or near the highway. The Sumter Sheriff’s Office identified him as a “violent offender” and a “threat to law enforcement.”
Further investigation revealed that the truck had been stolen from a Colleton County resident.
Reed refused to provide medical assistance at the scene but was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He was then taken to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center where he is being held for the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.
