Eyewitness recounts start of truck cab theft that ends in shootout near Dayton airport

LONDON, Madison County — A woman awakened by sirens and shouts of “drop your gun!” at the TA Travel Center truck stop near London early Wednesday doesn’t know what prompted a man and woman to steal the cab of a semitrailer and take its driver hostage only to be shot to death, but said, “it’s not worth your life. Not to me.”

>> WATCH: Body cam shows the moments that led to standoff near Dayton airport

She agreed to speak with News Center 7 Reporter Brandon Lewis on Wednesday night, but not on camera. She declined to be identified by name.

She said she visits the truck stop often and has never seen anything like what happened.

Sirens and shouts of “drop your gun!” woke her, she said. Police cars blocked off the center section of the parking lot. All the officers had their firearms drawn. It was a standoff for quite a long time, she said.

“He just kept revving the engine, revving the engine. That went on for a long time,” she said.

The cab of the semi lurched forward, was driven through the barricade, clipped one of the [London police] cars, continued onto the road and to the interstate.

“I had no clue what was happening,” she said.

The incident started around 1 a.m. when London police attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the suspects’ vehicle. As an officer was conducting the stop, the suspects drove away. Police Chief Glenn Nicol said they drove to a truck stop outside London. Once at the truck stop, they got out of their vehicle and ran. When an officer tried to tase them, the male suspect pointed a gun at the officer. That’s when the suspects took the cab of the semi.

“I was very close to where all the police were,” the woman at the truck stop said. “I was laying down in my car saying ‘please don’t let anything happen.’ "

She feared she could be hit by stray gunfire, but said she was more worried for the truckers parked near the incident who were facing the guns.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.

>> SEE: Photos of pursuit of stolen truck cab from Madison to Montgomery counties

The man and woman who took the cab from the truck stop in Madison County led law enforcement on a multi-county chase that ended on Dayton International Airport Access Road in Vandalia, Montgomery County. About 4 hours later, members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Special Response Team, who had surrounded the vehicle, shot both suspects in an exchange of gunfire.

The female suspect died at Miami Valley Hospital. The male suspect was initially listed in critical condition, but troopers said he later died at the hospital. The state patrol has not yet released their names, ages and hometowns.

The trucker, who was in the cab and injured in the shootout, survived. Officials at Werner Enterprises of Omaha, Nebraska, the truck’s owner, have not released the driver’s name.

Wednesday night, when the woman at the truck stop thought about how the suspects ended their lives, she said, “I don’t know what it was they originally did. But It’s not worth your life,” she said. “Not to me.”

The woman said she is praying for the family of the trucker who had been held hostage.

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