Police car stolen, drove to hospital; hanging out of police car; suspect
charged
Man tells police drugs are making him crazy
MELISSA MANWARE
Staff Writer - July 6, 2003, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.
Someone stole a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer's marked car Saturday and then used its radio to tell authorities where he was headed.
"... Somebody is trying to murder me," he said over the police radio. A moment later he said he had to go to the hospital because he was "taking drugs that are making me crazy."
Officers spotted the stolen cruiser -- driving with its blue lights flashing -- on Interstate 77 North just a few minutes after it was taken. They followed it onto Interstate 277, then off the highway and to the emergency room at Carolinas Medical Center.
A witness said the driver sped into the drop-off area partially hanging out of the car.
"He jumped out and was just screaming," said Jackie Carter Jr., a patient who was outside the emergency room door. "He tried to run into the hospital but they jumped on him."
The man police identified as the driver, Harvey Eugene Boyd, 39, was still at Carolinas Medical Center late Saturday. Hospital officials said he was in "good" condition.
Police had warrants charging Boyd with assault on a police officer and common-law robbery, which is a felony. The warrants will be served when he is released from the hospital, Detective John Kyle said.
Police do not believe Boyd had a weapon.
Kyle said the incident began when a man flagged down a police officer about 4:45 p.m. at South Boulevard and Archdale Drive. She stopped and he told her someone was trying to kill him and tried to get into the backseat of her police car.
The officer told the man to meet her in a nearby parking lot. There he grabbed her and tried to take her car, Kyle said. As she struggled with him, members of his family drove up and he ran away.
Police said the family members told them he had jumped from their vehicle and may have used crack cocaine Saturday.
Kyle said the man then tried to a take another woman's car in a parking lot across the street. The officer saw the struggle and drove there. She got out of the car and tried to approach him, and he jumped in her car and drove away.
Kyle said Boyd struggled with officers outside the hospital and that it took several to handcuff him. A doctor then sedated Boyd to calm him, he said.
Kyle said none of the police officers were seriously injured. The woman whom police say Boyd tried to car-jack drove away before officers could interview her, Kyle said.