Courtesy photo.

If you were downtown early Thursday morning as bars were closing, you may have noticed police up to something more than their usual patrols.

Officers set up a perimeter near Seventh and Ohio streets, searching for a fleeing driver just before 1:30 a.m. Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley told me the following narrative that led up to the manhunt:

Shortly before the pursuit began, an officer on patrol noticed a vehicle run the stop sign at Seventh and Tennessee streets. That officer followed the vehicle, which stopped “abruptly” near Seventh and Ohio streets when the officer turned on his lights and siren.

The driver quickly hopped out of the car and started fleeing on foot, even jumping a fence before running around a building.

More police joined the officer and set up a perimeter to try to find the man. A reader tweeted around 2 a.m. that “cops are on every street from Mississippi to Maine right now by each stop sign shining into people’s cars.”

Police continued to investigate Thursday and were working to identify the suspect the last time I spoke with McKinley around 5:30 p.m.

Interestingly, there was a passenger in the vehicle who remained inside when the driver got out and ran away. Police have interviewed the passenger as part of the investigation, McKinley said.
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Has anyone else seen this picture making its rounds on social media of a cellphone case shaped like a gun?

Courtesy photo.

People have been pretty opinionated on the issue. Places around the country have considered implementing bans on the cases – NBC Chicago reported that three city councilmen proposed a measure to fine case-owners up to $750 per offense.
Bloggers, media personalities and other folks behind computer screens have been commenting on whether they think a danger is present with the gun-shaped case.

The idea is, from what I can tell, that people are concerned law enforcement or civilians, armed or otherwise, might mistake the case for the real thing and feel threatened – which could have deadly consequences. Others say it’s just for fun.

What do you think?
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But while the gun-shaped case might trigger a scare, there’s another iPhone case on the market that could really provide some self-defense, or just hurt you.

Presenting the Yellow Jacket case, part phone case, part stun gun. Shocking, I know.

Screenshot of http://www.yellowjacketcase.com/.

For just $149.99, you can ensure you’re never too far from a jolt of electricity. The cases come in red, black and white, and have apparently been on the market since April 2014.

Screenshot of www.yellowjacketcase.com.

Yellow Jacket says the case will “protect everything” – your person and your phone, I guess. The website claims the case releases “a high voltage stun gun protection system” within seconds of deployment. And safety mechanisms to prevent accidental discharges.

I hope those mechanisms work. Just to be safe, I’d never put my phone in my back pocket ever again.

Check it out for yourself here, and please let me know if you get/have one. I’d love to know if it really works.
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And now for our daily roundup of police calls. As always, I’ll remind you that this is a list of noteworthy calls I pulled from the Lawrence Police Department call log. Not all calls yielded police reports, and many may have gone unsubstantiated. The list is meant to give you an idea of what kinds of calls police are responding to within a given time period.

This list is a collection of calls that police responded to between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning:

Violence

• Disturbance (verbal or physical arguments): 7

• Domestic disturbance: 4

Traffic

• Noninjury accident: 8

• Injury accident: 2

• Pursuit: 1

Medical

• Medical: 6

Person crimes

• Sex crime: 1

• Harassment: 2

Miscellaneous

• Suspicious activity: 4

• Noise or nuisance: 1

• Fireworks: 1

• Vicious animal: 1

Drugs

• Drug Activity: 1

Property crimes

• Burglary: 1

• Theft: 8

• Criminal damage: 2