(Newswire.net — May 3, 2015) — Blaine, Washington — Police in Blaine, a small town located on the border with Canada and the US, home of the Peace Arch international monument, reported an unusual case Friday. According to a police report, a woman drove a stolen school bus 70 miles from a Stanwood bus barn to Blaine, according to a Bellingham Herald report.
After she rammed the bus into a police car, she crashed at the marina park. She was arrested while attempting to swim to Canada. According to witnesses, the woman was screaming “God will save me!” as she swam through the cold water.
According to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, there were no children in the short yellow school bus, which had been taken from the Stanwood-Camano Island School District’s bus barn around 1:45 p.m., the Bellingham herald reported.
When Snohomish County officials asked the public to be on the lookout for a bus with Washington license plate 86934C, the bus was reported heading north on Interstate 5 around 3:45 p.m. in Ferndale. Half an hour later, the Bus rammed a patrol car at the gas station at Second and D street in Blaine, then sped onto Marine Drive, a dead-end harbor road, said Blaine Police Chief Mike Haslip.
“Boy, that school bus sure is driving fast,” said motorist Katherine McCall, 72, of Blaine. “I hope there aren’t any kids aboard,” she said when she alerted police. She has seen the yellow school bus going 60mph on Marine Drive.
After crashing into a log used as a parking lot barrier and high centering the bus, the bus finally stopped a few feet short of a tall solitary tree in the middle of the park, BH cited a police report.
Witnesses reported a middle-aged woman stormed out of a bus and ran 100 feet, jumping into Boundary Bay. Witnesses reported her shouting, “God will save me! God will save me!” as she ran into the frigid waters.
According to the police report, after she swam some 150 yards, the woman surrendered to police officers who took a nearby Blaine harbormaster’s powerboat and intercepted her. Witnesses said that police officers spent almost 20 minutes trying to persuade her to surrender. At that time, police simply pulled the woman into the boat after she showed signs of hypothermia.
North Whatcom firefighters took her by ambulance to St. Joseph hospital to treat her for hypothermia.
The police aren’t sure if the woman gave her true name, however, she was booked into Whatcom County Jail under the name Elizabeth Winter. She’s believed to be about 54 years old.
Investigators were trying to figure out how the woman got the keys of the school bus that began this unusual chase.