‘Twelve minutes of sheer terror’ police reveal details of stolen SUV with baby inside

Published 8:20 am Tuesday, December 17, 2019

A man accused of stealing an SUV with a 13-month-old baby girl inside and leading police on a chase before crashing on an interstate has been arrested in Kentucky. The child was unharmed.

“Twelve minutes of sheer terror, I’ll say,” Shepherdsville Police Chief Rick McCubbin said of the incident Monday morning.

Joshua Reynolds, 22, was accused of taking the car from a parking lot, news outlets quoted authorities as saying. A police sergeant initially spotted the vehicle and tried to make a traffic stop, but Reynolds kept going as a chase began, according to McCubbin.

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The chase continued into Kentucky’s Jefferson County on Interstate 65, where police say Reynolds crashed 12 minutes after the SUV had been stolen. Though the child wasn’t hurt, she was taken to a hospital as a precaution, McCubbin said.

Police body camera video from after the chase showed police taking Reynolds into custody.

Reynolds may have been under the influence of drugs at the time, McCubbin said.

Reynolds is charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence, kidnapping and other charges, according to Bullitt County jail records. It’s unclear whether he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

The child’s mother left the car unlocked and running in the parking lot, police said. She hasn’t been charged.

“I think she received the worst punishment of her life this morning,” the chief McCubbin said.