photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Law enforcement and firefighters work the scene Thursday after an apparent car chase in North Lawrence near the Kansas Turnpike entrance.

Updated at 3 p.m. Thursday

A Kansas City, Kansas, man has been arrested in connection with a police chase through Lawrence on Thursday.

The man, Mason Kevin Needs, 32, was booked into the Douglas County Jail after allegedly leading police on a chase through the city and into North Lawrence. Needs was booked on suspicion of possession of an opiate, possession of stolen property, attempt to elude while in commission of a felony, and theft of a motor vehicle.

The chase began shortly after 8:30 a.m. when a Lawrence police officer recognized a suspect vehicle from an ongoing investigation near West Third and Michigan streets. The officer attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver fled, said Lt. David Ernst, a spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department.

Police pursued the vehicle through Old West Lawrence and the downtown area before turning north. In North Lawrence, Douglas County sheriff’s deputies joined the chase. They deemed the speeding vehicle a threat to public safety and performed a tactical maneuver in the 1100 block of North Third Street, said George Diepenbrock, a spokesman for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. The car came to rest in the grass near the on-ramp to the Kansas Turnpike. The vehicle was briefly on fire, but it appeared that the flames were quickly extinguished. The turnpike booth remained open to traffic.

No injuries were reported.

Needs was being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $7,500 bond.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Police and emergency vehicles are pictured at the scene Thursday near the entrance to the Kansas Turnpike.