photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Travis Justin Brownlee

A Kansas City, Kansas, man was arrested Thursday morning after allegedly leading police on a car chase while drunk and crashing into a fence at an apartment complex in northern Lawrence.

Lawrence Police Sgt. Drew Fennelly said in an email that at about 1:05 a.m., an officer saw a four-door sedan commit multiple traffic violations after exiting a shopping center at 601 Kasold Drive. The officer suspected that the driver might be intoxicated, Fennelly said, and the officer tried to pull the car over in the 3100 block of West Sixth Street, where it was traveling east on the wrong side of the road.

Fennelly said the car didn’t stop, and the officer pursued it east to Rockledge Road, north to McDonald Drive and West Second Street and east again to Michigan Street. Fennelly said the car then tried to turn into an apartment complex at 255 N. Michigan St. but failed to make the turn and crashed into a fence.

The driver suffered minor injuries in the crash and was taken into custody without further incident, Fennelly said.

According to the Douglas County Jail booking log, Travis Justin Brownlee, 45, of Kansas City, Kansas, was booked on suspicion of felony flee and elude and a second-offense DUI. He was later released on a $3,000 cash bond and is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 22, according to the jail booking log.

Brownlee has numerous felony convictions in Douglas, Johnson and Wyandotte counties, including felony theft and removal of a monitoring device in 2019, felony possession of a firearm in 2016, and fleeing and eluding in 2011, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.