Man who jumped from ambulance is captured

Firefighters, a dive team and law officers tried to find the man after he jumped from the Interstate 40 bridge into the water about 10:15 a.m. Thursday.

Eugene David Overton, 43, was taken into custody about 10:50 a.m. on NE 4 between Interstate 35 and Bryant Avenue, said Capt. Jody Suit, a Del City police spokesman.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper spotted Overton in a clump of trees and arrested him.

Overton appeared to have a broken right arm, trooper Betsy Randolph said.

Overton was taken to OU Medical Center for treatment, then transported to the Oklahoma County jail. Suit said Overton is wanted on a felony robbery warrant from Colorado.

Suit said police first responded to reports that a man had been hit by a car in the parking lot of Walmart in the 5500 block of Tinker Diagonal.

An ambulance from Midwest Regional Medical Center responded and was transporting the man to OU Medical Center when the incident at the bridge occurred.

Larry Terry, director of Midwest Regional Emergency Medical Services, said the patient assaulted a paramedic while en route.

The paramedic was not seriously injured, but in response to the disturbance the driver of the ambulance stopped in the westbound lanes of the I-40 bridge.

Paramedics and police, who were following the ambulance, then saw the patient exit the vehicle, lower himself from the edge of the bridge and drop 80 feet into the water.

He then swam to the shoreline and ran off.