Ronkonkoma man accused of 18-wheel stealing tanker truck from gas station, police say

A Ronkonkoma man was arrested and charged Saturday in connection to stealing an 18-wheel tanker truck in the hamlet after he was released from custody earlier in the day in a separate crime, Suffolk County police said.

Welsey Shurman, 23, faces charges including grand larceny and unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, along with vehicle and traffic violations, authorities said.

Officers received a call at 4:30 p.m. from an employee at the 76 gasoline station on Veterans Memorial Highway reporting a 2018 Peterbilt Motors tanker truck parked at the station had been stolen, authorities said. An officer saw the eighteen-wheeler going east on Portion Road in Farmingville and attempted a traffic stop.

Shurman didn’t stop and the officer followed him until the tanker truck stopped after crashing into a stop sign on Stuyvesant Drive in Selden, authorities said. Shurman was taken into custody and will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Earlier Saturday, Shurman was released from First District Court after he was arrested Friday on a criminal possession of a controlled substance charge, authorities said. He has six bench warrants.