Lawrence Police are searching for three men in the early Friday shooting death of 22-year-old Quincy M. Sanders, whose bullet-riddled body was found near the front door of a duplex at 2603 Ridge Court.

“He’d been shot numerous times,” said police spokesman Sgt. Mike Pattrick.

The trio of suspects was seen leaving the duplex in a white Dodge Intrepid that was later involved in a chase with Kansas University police that began at Iowa and University streets and ended near 11th and Indiana streets, where two of the suspects fled on foot.

The car was later found abandoned in the 400 block of Indiana Street.

By late afternoon, the search had shifted to Topeka.

Lt. Dave Cobb said Lawrence detectives were working closely with the Topeka Police Department and predicted arrests would be made soon.

“I’m betting they’ll be in custody within 48 hours,” Cobb said. “I’ll be surprised if they aren’t.”

Sanders’ slaying is the fourth in the city since July 2002, when Damien Lewis shot to death an elderly couple in their east Lawrence home.

It is the second homicide in Lawrence this year. The first occurred in January about two and a half blocks from where Sanders was killed. In that case, David Joel Uptain, 31, stands accused in the stabbing death of Michael Bruce Riley, 49, in an apartment near 23rd and Iowa streets.

Pattrick said Friday’s shooting appeared to be the result of a confrontation between “two small groups of persons” during a party.

He added, “There’s no indication the shooting was gang related.”

Lawrence Police detectives look for evidence outside a duplex at 2603 Ridge Court, where 22-year-old Quincy M. Sanders was shot to death early Friday. Orange evidence markers in the yard are visible in the foreground Friday and a tarp covering the entrance to the house shields other evidence from passersby.

Later in the afternoon, Cobb said the altercation appeared to involve a dispute over a girlfriend.

Sanders is well-known to police. He was convicted of robbing a Lawrence Burger King in 2000, and, in 2001, of selling cocaine.

He spent 60 days in the Douglas County Jail last summer after being found guilty of attempted kidnapping, robbery and selling cocaine.

The kidnapping charge stemmed from Sanders’ role in the Jan. 3, 2002, beating and detention of Justo Culian, a transient who had made undercover drug buys for police.

Culian was later taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where, according to court records, he was treated for “contusions on his head.”

Justin Stipanovich, a Lawrence Police Department evidence detective, dusts a Dodge Intrepid for fingerprints. Stipanovich worked on the car Friday morning at the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center. A trio of suspects in an early-morning homicide used the car to elude authorities. It was later found abandoned in the 400 block of Indiana Street.

After Sanders’ arrest, the Lawrence Humane Society seized four pit bulls from behind Sanders’ apartment in the 800 block of New York Street.

Sanders also was involved in a Sept. 4, 2002, altercation that resulted in police shooting a pit bull thought to belong to Sanders.

Sanders was married and known to have two children.

“I loved him very much,” Sanders’ wife, Michelle, told the Journal-World. “I miss him.”

She added, “I want whoever did this to be caught and punished.”

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Michelle Sanders, 27, was not with her husband at the time of the shooting. The couple shared an apartment.

A source familiar with Sanders and the Lawrence drug culture said Sanders’ death likely would trigger “big repercussions.”

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “This will not go unanswered — watch, someone else will end up dead over this. These are not people you want to jack with.”