The Associated Press
OAKLEY, Kan. (AP) -- Shots were fired at police in a chase that began on Interstate 70 in western Kansas after a routine traffic stop and ended with one California man shot and wounded and another in custody.
A section of the interstate was closed to traffic in both directions for a time during the investigation of the chase, which continued on state and county roads and lasted more than half an hour. The Kansas Highway Patrol and police and sheriff’s deputies from Thomas, Logan and Gove counties were involved.
According to the patrol, one of its trooper stopped an eastbound car on the interstate near milepost 63 in Thomas County at about 1:44 p.m. for a routine traffic violation. There were two men with California identification in the rented car, and the patrol said that the trooper became suspicious of illegal activity, asked to search the car and was given permission to do so.
A second trooper arrived to help with the search, but the patrol said that while the search was underway the driver sped off.
As the two troopers began pursuing the fleeing car, shots were fired at them, one of them hitting the roof of the lead vehicle, just above the windshield.
The car left the interstate and continued east on U.S. 40, then headed north on county roads toward Campus. North of that community, in Thomas County, the car suddenly stopped and the passenger got out, trying to run away. The first trooper quickly caught him and turned him over to police from Oakley.
Meanwhile, the second trooper and other officers continued pursuing the car in a chase that headed back south of Interstate 70 on county roads. The patrol said at one point the driver stopped the car and began shooting at the police, striking the second trooper’s car in the front end.
The trooper fired his shotgun when the driver headed into a wheat field, striking the car but not hitting the fugitive. The patrol said the car then went through a fence and back onto I-70, this time heading westbound in the eastbound lanes, again with gunfire being exchanged.
The patrol said that at approximately 2:24 p.m., one of its lieutenants shot the suspect and the car crashed, coming to rest in the center of the wetbound lanes, just east of Exit 70.
The driver was taken first to Logan County Hospital in Oakley, then flown to Via Christi-St. Francis Hospital in Wichita.
Formal charges had not been filed against the two men. The one who fled the car during the chase was being held at the Thomas County Jail.
The patrol asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to take over investigation of the incident. The two troopers and the lieutenant were placed on administrative leave during the investigation.