Car theft suspect drives off in Fort Worth cop car

By Melody McDonald
Star-Telegram Staff Writer - May 22, 2000 

FORT WORTH -- A car theft suspect squeezed from the back seat
through a narrow crack in a patrol cruiser partition and drove 
off, leading authorities on a two-hour, 60-mile chase through 
Denton County and back again.

Car speeds reached more than 100 miles per hour yesterday
before a state trooper shot out a tire on the stolen squad car.

"She was running people off the road. ... She ran me off the 
road," said trooper Andres Arigullin of Denton County's
Department of Public Safety.

With a blown-out tire, dozens of patrol cars behind the swiped
cruiser and a police helicopter overhead, the driver gave up,
authorities said. Using a cellular phone inside the police car, 
she dialed 911 and told a dispatcher that she was ready to 
surrender, police said.

Tammy Sellers, 29, of Fort Worth was arrested at Farm Road
156, also called Blue Mound Road, near Basswood Boulevard in
Saginaw. Sellers was booked into Tarrant County Jail, where she
is facing charges of auto theft and fleeing from police, Sgt. J.A.
Burchfield said.

Police said Sellers stole the police car shortly before 10:30 a.m.
from the 1800 block of East Vickery Boulevard, where Sellers and
two men had been pulled over.

Officer A.N. Speed, who made the stop, said he suspected that
the 2000 Ford they were riding in had been stolen.

Burchfield said that the driver was known to local police as a
prostitute and a drug user, and that the new car had paper tags
from Oklahoma.

Speed said he placed the female driver in the back of his air-
conditioned patrol car while he spoke with her passengers, called
in the license plate number and searched the vehicle. Inside the 
stolen car, he found a basketful of what was believed to be stolen
merchandise and a crack pipe, he said.

"At that time, she crawled through the window and took off," he
said.

A short time later, a Star-Telegram reporter who had heard 
radio reports of the stolen cruiser spotted a woman in plain dress
driving a police vehicle with its sirens on. The reporter notified 
police that the car was heading west in the 900 block of West
Belknap Street. The reporter followed the car until police
overtook them, and authorities continued the chase.

The woman led authorities west on Interstate 30 and onto North
Loop 820. She then took Interstate 35W North into Denton
County. She eventually headed south again and stopped on Blue
Mound Road.

Over the police radio, Speed could be heard talking to the driver.

"Tammy Sellers, pull the patrol car over now," Speed said.

At least once, DPS officers threw a spiked strip into the path of
the stolen cruiser, attempting to get her to drive over it and blow
out the tires. But the car thief, who could have been listening to
officers on the cruiser's radio, maneuvered around it.

About 12:30 p.m., Arigullin pointed his shotgun outside the
passenger side window of his speeding cruiser and fired four
times. He hit a back tire.

The stolen car pulled over, and the driver surrendered.

Police are conducting an internal investigation to determine
whether Speed followed proper departmental procedures when 
he detained the woman, and whether the cagelike partition in his
patrol vehicle was properly secured, said Lt. David Burgess, a
police spokesman.

Burchfield said he has never heard of anyone able to slide 
through the narrow opening in a partition -- about 1-by-1 foot --
that separates the front and back seats of a cruiser. The back
doors and windows cannot be opened from the inside.

Police procedures don't require back seat passengers in a patrol
car to be handcuffed unless they have been arrested, Burgess
said.

"The fact is she wasn't being arrested," Burgess said. "She was
being detained until we had time to check out the vehicle."

On hot days, Burgess said, officers use their discretion on
whether to leave their keys in the car and the air conditioner
running.

"On a 100-degree day, we don't want to turn the car off and
suffocate them," Burgess said.

It couldn't be determined last night whether the suspicious car
was stolen or what happened to the driver's companions.


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