KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An Olathe man was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after leading police on a chase on a runway at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Missouri, in February 2022.
On Feb. 1, 2022, officers with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department responded to the airport on a vehicle that was running near a gate at the airport.
An officer located Efren Torres-Rodriguez asleep inside the vehicle, turned it off and woke him up.
They later told Torres-Rodriguez to exit the vehicle, but instead he turned the car back on and fled the scene.
Torres-Rodriguez rammed through the gate and onto the airfield, according to court documents.
The chase continued before he drove into a grassy area and the vehicle became disabled. At one point, Torres-Rodriguez reached up to 100 mph speeds.
Police found a Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine inside the car and methamphetamine inside of bag retrieved from Torres-Rodriguez's pocket.
He was later charged with one count damaging or disrupting an international airport and one count of being a felon and an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.
Torres-Rodriguez was sentenced Tuesday and will spend about 6.5 years in prison.
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