photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A Lawrence Police Department patrol vehicle is pictured June 28, 2022.

A man was arrested Monday at a Lawrence grocery store after allegedly threatening a couple with a firearm a few blocks away, Lawrence police said on social media.

The Lawrence Police Department posted that officers were dispatched to 23rd and Louisiana streets just before noon on Monday after witnesses reported a man threatening a couple with a firearm and then leaving the scene.

According to the post, officers got a description of the suspect from witnesses and spotted him about an hour later near the intersection of 23rd Street and Naismith Drive.

“When officers attempted to approach him, he ran into a nearby grocery store,” the post said. The post said police set up a perimeter, located the man in the grocery store and arrested him safely.

The post did not specify which store the suspect ran into, but there is only one grocery store at the intersection of 23rd and Naismith, Natural Grocers at 1301 W. 23rd St.

Police took the suspect to the hospital because he was complaining of stomach issues, then to the Douglas County Jail, the post said.

The jail booking log shows one arrest for an incident at 11:47 a.m. Monday at 23rd and Louisiana: Jason Robert Kessee, 49, of Lawrence, arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was being held without bond.