Terrifying truck hijacking ends after four hours as police open fire on suspects
The elderly couple led police on a two-hour chase through three counties
A pair of suspected truck hijackers who reportedly fired on Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers are dead after a shootout on a highway.
The chain of events that led to the elderly couples' deaths began just before 1am on Wednesday morning when a police officer in London, Ohio, pulled over a minivan with no rear lights or visible vehicle registration.
Bodycam footage shows the office approaching the couple and asking for their identification, according to WBNS10. The pair identified themselves as Ronald and Barbara Taylor, 54 and 51, respectively, and said they did not have identification because their documents were in the woman's purse, which they said had been stolen.
The officer also learned that Ms Taylor had just left an emergency room after stabbing herself in the eye with a pair of scissors.
Eventually, Mr Taylor took off in the minivan and led police on a four-minute chase to a nearby truck stop, where the couple fled the minivan. Police chased the couple around the parking lot and threatened to shoot them with tasers, which prompted Mr Taylor to draw a handgun. Responding officers ducked for cover, which allowed the couple to flee to a white truck pulling a trailer and hijack it with the driver still inside.
The couple apparently struggled to figure out how to start the car, giving police 20 minutes to erect barricades to stop them from fleeing. However, the plans failed when the couple rammed a police car and escaped the parking lot, starting a two-hour chase on a nearby highway.
The chase took police through three counties before the truck stopped in Montgomery County near the Dayton International Airport's access road, according to WHIO.
Law enforcement officers from several agencies spent the next four hours attempting to negotiate with the couple to release the driver they had taken hostage.
“There were negotiations that were occurring from around 3.20am, when the vehicle came to a stop, till about 7.30 this morning when troopers from the Special Response Team decided to attempt to make entry,” Ohio State Patrol Lieutenant Nate Dennis said.
Members of the OSHP's special response team eventually approached the truck in an attempt to remove the hostage, but as they tried to enter the vehicle the couple began firing on the troopers.
The special response team returned fire, with one trooper emptying 20 rounds into the windshield of the vehicle.
When the dust cleared, the driver managed to escape the vehicle unharmed. The Taylors were taken to a nearby hospital where they died of their wounds.