7/17/25 Desoto Parish, LA – Mental Illness Patient Steals Desoto EMS Ambulance From Emergency Room – Erratic Driving – Jumps Out Of Running Ambulance In Drive – Ambulance Crashed Into Metal Structure – Pending Charges After Capture

July 17, 2025

www.ktbs.com

A wild ambulance theft was caught on camera in Wednesday night in DeSoto Parish.

Mansfield police identify the man allegedly responsible as Marquis Simpson. He’s not been arrested nor is he in jail. Instead, Mansfield Mayor Thomas Jones said Simpson is in a facility to get help for mental health issues. 

Regardless, a DeSoto Parish judge has signed arrest warrants that are waiting on Simpson once he leaves the unknown facility. He’s being charged with two felony offenses and multiple traffic offenses related to the ambulance theft. 

The short joy ride in the stolen ambulance started around 8 p.m. from outside of DeSoto Regional Medical Center in Mansfield.

A DeSoto EMS crew delivered a patient to the emergency room, and when they came outside the ambulance was gone. At first they thought they’d been pranked, DeSoto EMS Administrator Joe Magee said.

“When they looked up, the saw the ambulance, the thought like somebody was playing a joke on them at first,” Magee said. 

But it didn’t take long to learn a man had gotten into the unit and drove away. He was being recorded the entire time by the cameras inside the unit.

Simpson was seen speeding through a residential neighborhood, hitting speeds of 52 miles per hour. 

“They alerted dispatch right away. It only took a few minutes to catch up. He didn’t make it far — just three or four blocks — before he crashed into a steel storage rack,” Magee said.

Magee said it’s likely the man panicked when the audible alarms inside the ambulance started going off. A system is in place to warn drivers when seatbelts are not in use or if the ambulance is being driven erratically. 

There’s a few thousands dollars worth of damage to the ambulance, Magee said.

“It’s drivable but not operational,” Magee said. “The front bumper, the sirens, grille — it’s all pretty much destroyed. Even the fenders are torn up.”

Magee says DeSoto EMS is now changing its policy. The paramedics won’t leave ambulances running anymore. But he admits that actually makes things harder, especially when crews are unloading critical patients who rely on the power and lighting inside.

Meanwhile, EMS services in the parish were not impacted by the theft. All seven of the Advanced Life Support ambulances remained in service.