A man eluded police, sideswiped a Metro bus and a police cruiser, carjacked two vehicles, and led cops on a chase the wrong way up an HOV ramp before eventually being taken into custody Thursday morning after crashing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, officials said.
The incident started about 8 a.m. on a ramp leading to the HOV lanes of Interstate 395 near Edsell Road in Fairfax County. Virginia State Police troopers saw 25-year-old Gerald McCall driving a stolen green pickup truck attempt to back down the ramp, police said. Traffic prevented McCall from continuing down the ramp, and state police stopped him.
McCall admitted to having a suspended license, police said, and then drove away from officers and onto I-395.
Police pursued him to the Shirlington Road exit, where he got off I-395 and collided with a state police cruiser and another vehicle, causing the pickup to spin in the roadway, police said. While driving in reverse back up the ramp, the pickup struck a Metrobus near Shirlington Circle.
McCall bailed out of the truck and unsuccessfully tried to carjack a woman's vehicle before fleeing on foot into a nearby neighborhood, police said. Police then spotted him driving a stolen white pickup truck.
The man drove onto the George Washington Parkway, through the median and up an embankment through the old entrance to National Airport. State police finally forced the white pickup into a barrier wall on the upper departure deck at the airport, police said.
The driver, from Maryland, was taken into custody. He suffered minor injuries and was taken to INOVA Fairfax Hospital, officials said. No other injuries were reported.
There were 23 passengers on the sideswiped bus, which was headed to the Pentagon.
U.S. Park Police and the Arlington Police Department assisted state police in pursuing the man.
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The Alexandria Police Department is investigating.
