NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A 14-year-old boy is facing charges after he allegedly stole a bus from a Nashville school on Saturday afternoon and led police on a highway chase.
According to a press release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, the teen stole the bus from KIPP Nashville College Prep in Nashville’s Antioch neighborhood. He then drove it approximately nine miles across town to a gas station where he rammed a diesel fuel pump and tried to run over a person, reports Yahoo.
Police said the boy then drove onto Briley Parkway and then onto Interstate 40 West, hitting a car in the process. Officers pursued the bus onto the interstate as it traveled up to 65 miles per hour. Police deployed a spike strip near the McCrory Lane exit but the teen slowed down and drove through the grass median in an attempt to continue in the eastbound lanes.
As the boy was trying to make the turn, officers were able to run up to the bus and break the glass on the door. When he attempted to continue driving, officers deployed a Taser on him.
The boy, who WKRN reports lives at an Antioch home in state custody, was taken into custody and placed in a juvenile detention center. He is now facing charges of vehicle theft, aggravated assault, evading arrest, reckless driving, driving without a license, leaving the scene of a crash, and failure to report a crash.
KIPP Nashville College Prep has yet to release a statement about the incident. It is not known if the boy was a student at the school, which is an open-enrollment public charter school in North Nashville that serves students in grades five through eight.