photo by: Courtesy of Lawrence Police Department

Derrick James Davidson

A Baldwin City man who has been sought by police for weeks was arrested in Lawrence on Thursday and charged with 13 felonies and five misdemeanors in Douglas County District Court for allegedly taking two firearms, multiple vehicles and other items.

Police asked for the public’s help finding Derrick James Davidson, 31, in mid-January after he was said to have led police on multiple car and foot chases after stealing cars in Topeka and Lawrence, as the Journal-World reported.

On Thursday, Lawrence police believed Davidson had returned to Lawrence after they responded to a report of a vehicle break-in around 1 a.m. A witness said that she interrupted the burglary and that the man fled in an SUV, according to a post on social media from the Lawrence Police Department. About five minutes later, an officer spotted the SUV in the 200 block of McDonald Drive and approached, and the occupants of the vehicle fled on foot. Police arrested a woman, Emilee Eleanor Marie Stansell, 28, of Lecompton, on suspicion of drug possession and municipal warrants, but the man, later identified as Davidson, eluded police.

Police were able to locate and arrest Davidson around 4 p.m. Thursday in the 700 block of Lake Street without incident.

He was charged on Friday with taking two handguns from two people, burglarizing a residence and two cars, taking a box truck, a Ford Focus, tools, a man’s prescribed amphetamines, a car’s license plate, and a man’s paperweight and hat. He was also in possession of methamphetamine, police said. The charges allege that the thefts and burglaries occurred on or around Jan. 11.

Davidson was on parole at the time of the incident for a felony 2022 theft conviction in Douglas County. He also has felony convictions in Franklin County for burglary, theft and drug possession. He is being held at the Douglas County Jail without bond.