3 suspects in custody after high-speed police chase ends in Lawrence
Three people are in custody after leading multiple Kansas law enforcement agencies on a high-speed vehicle chase from Kansas City, Kan., to Lawrence on Wednesday.
The pursuit began when the Kansas Highway Patrol attempted to stop an aggravated burglary suspect in an allegedly stolen black Toyota SUV near 57th Street and Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kan., KHP Trooper Tiffany Bush said. The vehicle was spotted after Shawnee police broadcast the description of the vehicle from a 3:30 p.m. report of an attempted car burglary.
Maj. Dan Tennis said people in the black Toyota 4Runner were seen making “door handle checks” on parked cars near 52nd Street and Halsey, 47th Street and Halsey Street, and 47th Street and Bond Street. One victim reported that they were home when a suspect tried to break into their car while it was in the garage, Tennis said. One of the attempted auto burglary victims was able to provide police with a description of the suspect and part of the vehicle’s license plate number.
Shawnee police ran the tag number, Tennis said, and realized it was a stolen vehicle out of Kansas City, Kan. When the vehicle was spotted, it did not stop for police and fled west onto U.S. Highway 24. The KHP followed the vehicle to Tonganoxie, but lost sight of it and the Tonganoxie Police Department took over the pursuit, McKinley said.
Around 4:15 p.m., the KHP notified Lawrence police that the SUV was heading its way, McKinley said. The suspects came into North Lawrence on U.S. 24, continuing on to North Third Street, but Lawrence police had laid spike strips down at the intersection of Sixth and Vermont streets.
The vehicle’s tires were punctured when the suspect drove over the spike strips, and it collided with another vehicle in the area, McKinley said. No one was believed to be injured in that crash.
Though its tires were deflating, the vehicle did not stop after the collision, instead turning on to Sixth Street and continuing west as police followed behind. McKinley said that the SUV was “traveling left of center into direct traffic,” causing a public safety concern.
The tire deflation eventually made the vehicle uncontrollable, and it stopped on a curb in the westbound lane of Sixth Street near Michigan Street. All three suspects — one female and two males — then exited the vehicle and fled police on foot.
Soon after, police found the female suspect near Anderson Rentals, 1312 W. Sixth St. Officers worked to secure a perimeter in the area, McKinley said, and began searching for the male suspects.
After about 15 minutes, McKinley said, the remaining suspects were located — one in the second floor of a business office at 1414 W. Sixth St., and another near the back of a home in the 500 block of Florida Street. The man at the office building was taken into custody without incident.
The suspect at the Florida Street home was “uncooperative,” McKinley said, and an officer used a Taser to subdue him. In accordance with Lawrence Police Department policy, the suspect was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital as a precaution, but he appeared to be uninjured by the Taser.
McKinley did not know whether a resident of the Florida Street house was home at the time of the incident; however, a woman approached McKinley after the arrests with a pair of sunglasses she allegedly found in her back yard.
McKinley said that the three were not be booked into the Douglas County Jail, but instead were taken to Shawnee for prosecutorial review. Tennis said Shawnee police interviewed the suspects Wednesday evening and charged 20-year-old Orion Sherley, the driver of the vehicle, with aggravated burglary.
Tennis said the other male in the car was arrested on a warrant and the female was not charged in relation to any auto burglaries in Shawnee. Tennis said the Shawnee Police Department is working with Kansas City, Kan., police, Tonganoxie police, Lawrence police and the Kansas Highway Patrol on additional charges related to the car chase.