Man charged after police car stolen

A man has been charged with theft and firearms offences after a marked police car
was stolen, then crashed, south of Melbourne.
Acting Inspector Russell Patten said police spotted a man acting suspiciously on a
median strip outside Rosebud Police Station, in Boneo Road, shortly after 7pm (AEST)
on Tuesday.
A leading senior constable and a senior constable were driving away from the station
in a marked Holden Commodore patrol car when they noticed the man behaving
irrationally and reversed to the car park.
"As they did so, he produced two firearms," Insp Patten told AAP.
"He's moved across the road towards the police members and the vehicle, brandishing
the firearms ... and one of the police members has discharged his firearm.
"No person was struck as a result of the discharge. The man jumped into the police
car and drove off."
Pursuing police saw the patrol car strike a pole in a back street, then speed along
the Mornington Peninsula Freeway towards Melbourne.
But the police vehicle eventually crashed into an embankment near the intersection
of Derill and Males roads at Moorooduc, about 25km northeast of Rosebud.
The man fled across some paddocks, but was spotted by the police air wing and
arrested by the elite special operations group, assisted by the dog squad, at about
8.30pm.
The man was taken to Frankston police station for questioning.
On Wednesday, a 22-year-old Rosebud man was charged with 32 offences, including
armed robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, making threats to kill, assaulting police,
making threats to inflict serious injury, firearms offences and driving offences,
including drink driving.
He man faced an out-of-sessions hearing and was remanded in custody to appear in the
Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday.