3 suspects in custody after high-speed police chase ends in Lawrence

Police watch over a suspect after a high-speed chase and foot pursuit that ended near the intersection of Sixth and Michigan streets, Wednesday, July 29, 2015.

Three people are in custody after leading multiple Kansas law enforcement agencies on a high-speed vehicle chase from Kansas City, Kan., to Lawrence on Wednesday.

The pursuit began when the Kansas Highway Patrol attempted to stop an aggravated burglary suspect in an allegedly stolen black Toyota SUV near 57th Street and Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kan., KHP Trooper Tiffany Bush said.

The vehicle did not stop, and continued west onto U.S. Highway 24. The KHP followed the vehicle to Tonganoxie, but lost sight of it and the Tonganoxie Police Department took over the pursuit, McKinley said.

Around 4:15 p.m., the KHP notified Lawrence police that the SUV was heading its way, McKinley said. The suspects came into North Lawrence on U.S. 24, continuing on to North Third Street, but Lawrence police had laid spike strips down at the intersection of Sixth and Vermont streets.

The vehicle’s tires were punctured when the suspect drove over the spike strips, and it collided with another vehicle in the area, McKinley said. No one was believed to be injured in that crash.

Though its tires were deflating, the vehicle did not stop after the collision, instead turning on to Sixth Street and continuing west as police followed behind. McKinley said that the SUV was “traveling left of center into direct traffic,” causing a public safety concern.

The tire deflation eventually made the vehicle uncontrollable, and it stopped on a curb in the westbound lane of Sixth Street near Michigan Street. All three suspects — one female and two males — then exited the vehicle and fled police on foot.

Soon after, police found the female suspect near Anderson Rentals, 1312 W. Sixth St. Officers worked to secure a perimeter in the area, McKinley said, and began searching for the male suspects.

After about 15 minutes, McKinley said, the remaining suspects were located — one in the second floor of a business office at 1414 W. Sixth St., and another near the back of a home in the 500 block of Florida Street. The man at the office building was taken into custody without incident.

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The suspect at the Florida Street home was “uncooperative,” McKinley said, and an officer used a Taser to subdue him. In accordance with Lawrence Police Department policy, the suspect was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital as a precaution, but he appeared to be uninjured by the Taser.

McKinley did not know whether a resident of the Florida Street house was home at the time of the incident; however, a woman approached McKinley after the arrests with a pair of sunglasses she allegedly found in her back yard.

McKinley said that the three will not be booked into the Douglas County Jail, and instead would be taken to the Kansas City, Kan., area for prosecutorial review in Shawnee. Bush said the KHP assisted Shawnee police in bringing the three suspects and the allegedly stolen vehicle to the Shawnee Police Department on Wednesday evening.

The names of the suspects were not released.