--- title: "The National Guard Officer Accused Of Taking An APC On A Joyride Will Have His Day In Court" description: "Joshua Phillip Yabut, the National Guard first lieutenant accused of leading police on a lengthy chase through Richmond, Virginia in June, in a, well, let’s say “liberated” APC, was deemed competent to stand trial after a two-and-a-half month evaluation, [reports…" date: "2018-10-01" modified: "2018-10-01" authors: - name: "James Clark" job_title: "Editor-in-Chief" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/james-clark/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/guard-officer-apc-joyride-stand-trial/" categories: - "News" --- # The National Guard Officer Accused Of Taking An APC On A Joyride Will Have His Day In Court ![]() Joshua Phillip Yabut, the National Guard first lieutenant accused of leading police on a lengthy chase through Richmond, Virginia in June, in a, well, let’s say “liberated” APC, was deemed competent to stand trial after a two-and-a-half month evaluation, [reports ]()the Richmond Times-Dispatch. - The 30-year-old guardsman appeared in Richmond General District Court on Sept. 26, where his attorney and a local prosecutor reached a deal to dismiss all but one charge against him, the Times-Dispatch [reports](). - Yabut, an Afghanistan veteran with 11 years in the guard, is accused of leaving Fort Pickett, Virginia, in an M577 armored command vehicle on the evening of June 5 and leading local police on a 65-mile joyride at 40 miles per hour before surrendering to police in downtown Richmond. - A company commander with the 276th Engineer Battalion, Yabut was taking part in annual training at Fort Pickett when he absconded with the vehicle just before 8 p.m. - Following his arrest, Yabut was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, eluding the police, and unauthorized use of a vehicle; all but the felony charge of eluding police have been dropped. His court date has not been set. - Yabut appeared to tweet his plan to make off with the Vietnam-era transport, posting a screenshot of a Wikipedia page showing a similar vehicle, and Google Maps, with a pin dropped on the Richmond State Capitol building — near to where the chase ended later that day. - After his release from Central State Hospital where he was involuntarily committed after his arrest, Yabut has returned to Twitter, [posting a reply]() on Sept. 27 to an August tweet asking, “I wonder what the Richmond Tank Man is doing.” Yabut [appears to have taken issue]() with the moniker “tank man” which began trending after the story broke in June. It’s unclear if he prefers “M577 man,” “APC man,” or “legend.” ## Author James Clark is the editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose. He is a former Marine and a veteran of the War in Afghanistan. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [LinkedIn]()