Rural Brown County Man Arrested After Chase in Stolen Beardstown Ambulance

By Benjamin Cox on January 14, 2025 at 9:08am

Photo Courtesy of IL Dept. of Corrections

A rural Brown County man has been charged with attempted murder in Schuyler County after leading authorities on a chase in a stolen ambulance last week in Rushville.

Area media outlets report that 47-year old James M. Bowman of Ripley was admitted into Culbertson Memorial Hospital in Rushville for an unknown reason. According to the report, Bowman became agitated and assaulted a staff member of the hospital before taking an ambulance, owned by the Beardstown Ambulance Service, which was idling near the hospital around 1PM on Thursday.

Schuyler County Sheriff Bill Redshaw told WGEM that Bowman drove off from the hospital towards the Rushville town square, heading the wrong direction on East Lafayette Street, running multiple stop signs. Bowman then drove the ambulance out of town east on Adams Road before returning back into town along East Adams Street. In the course of eluding police, Bowman sideswiped Rushville Chief of Police Rick Wright’s squad car and nearly hit a street worker. Bowman then drove across a resident’s yard near Orchard Lake Drive before crashing the ambulance into a ditch at 1:17PM.

Bowman and Wright were both taken to Culbertson Hospital for treatment. Bowman was then flown, under guard, to a Springfield Hospital for further treatment. Bowman remains at the hospital under guard.

He is said to be on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections since January 2024 for convictions in Schuyler County and Fulton County for solicitation of residential burglary and criminal trespass with a person present for incidents in 2016.

Bowman has not been officially booked into any jail at this time. According to KHQA, Schuyler County State’s Attorney Chuck Laegeler’s Office has received citations from the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Office for Bowman on the incident for attempted murder, leaving the scene of a traffic crash, 4 counts of reckless driving with one taking place in a school zone, aggravated fleeing and eluding police, theft of government property over $100,000, and 8 counts of disobeying a stop sign.

Rushville Police citations include aggravated battery of a nurse, aggravated assault to a police officer, and criminal damage to government-supported property.

Authorities have indicated that additional charges may be filed at a later date. According to online court records, the state’s attorney’s office has not officially filed charges yet.