Ambulance Driver Charged With Fighting, Wild Driving

DULUTH, GA -- A private ambulance crew member has been arrested on charges that he was driving wildly through a subdivision and pulled a knife on co-worker during a fight that was happening at the same time.

Kyle Lathon, 22, was arrested after what police call a reckless ride through a residential neighborhood in Duluth on Wednesday.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Gwinnett County Police say they responded to a suspicious vehicle call at 4780 Cambridge Park Ct. in Duluth. Numerous residents had called 911, saying an ambulance was speeding through the neighborhood and knocking down mailboxes.

One of the callers also reported a crew member of the ambulance had been stabbed and was in the subdivision.

Police found the victim, who claimed that he hadn't been stabbed, but received the laceration after jumping off of a moving ambulance.

He went on to tell police that he and Lathon work for Med Care EMS Transport and that they'd been arguing all day.

They'd gotten to the subdivision to pick up someone, but realized they left behind the wheel chair they'd need for the transport. 

"This caused additional tension between the two males," police said in a news release.

They went back to the hospital, got the wheelchair and returned. The victim, who was driving at the time, asked Kyle to take the wheelchair to the patient.

In response, the man told police that Kyle got out, walked around the ambulance, grabbed him around his throat and pulled him out of the ambulance.

Kyle then pulled a knife and chased the man around the ambulance, according to the police report.

Afterward, the report claims, Kyle jumped into the driver's seat, as the other man jumped onto the rear bumper.

"Kyle drove off at a high rate of speed as the other male clung to the ambulance," the report reads.

Eventually, the victim would jump off of the bumper.

Kyle continued through the neighborhood, striking at least five mailboxes, a transformer and a number of lawns and curbs.

He later returned the ambulance to Med Care EMS in Buford, where he was arrested.

Kyle faces the following charges: five counts of hit and run/striking a fixed object, one count of reckless conduct and one count of criminal trespass.

He has bonded out of the Gwinnett County Detention Center, police said.