UPDATE: November 18, 9:30a.m. Lee's Summit Police say an arrest warrant for Richard S. Connely, 30, of Belton, Mo. was issued for Assault in the 1st degree. Connely was arrested at a residence in Belton shortly before midnight. The two suspects taken into custody by the Missouri Highway Patrol after the original incident were not related to this case.
GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Lee's Summit police chased a burglary suspect into Grandview Friday morning and found what turned out to be items stolen from an off-duty Missouri State Highway Patrol truck inside the suspect’s car.
Lee's Summit police told 41 Action News officers went to the Strasbourg Apartments at 4:30 a.m. for reports of car break-ins. They stopped a car that was leaving the complex, spoke with the driver, and then the driver sped off.
As officers chased the car at speeds around 30 miles per hour, the driver pointed a gun out of the window, according to Lee's Summit police.
“The driver repeatedly is pointing a rifle out of the vehicle back at the officers pursuing him. That raised our danger level of the pursuit,” explained Sergeant Chris Depue of the Lee’s Summit Police Department.
The car crashed in a residential neighborhood in Grandview and the driver fled. Police searched the area near 150th Terrace and Fuller Avenue for the suspect Friday morning.
Lee's Summit police found guns, ammunition, and body armor in the car the suspect ditched. Investigators later determined some of those items were stolen from a Missouri Highway Patrol truck in Kansas City, Missouri Wednesday.
Officers also found what looked like a grenade inside the car. The bomb squad investigated and determined there were no bomb-making or explosive materials or grenades inside the car.
“The vehicle is so full of stuff, clothing, body armor, weapons. They saw what looked like could be explosives. It turned out it was basically butane, a lighter and some airsoft BBs, things like that,” Depue explained.
Meanwhile, Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers conducted a second car chase on I-49 near the location of the crash. Troopers, with the help of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit, located two men from that car.
The car was reported stolen out of Belton.
Lee’s Summit police initially thought those suspects were connected to the suspect they met at the Strasbourg Apartments. But Highway Patrol said the two incidents are unrelated.
There is no update on the Lee’s Summit Police Department’s search for their initial suspect. Police ended their search in the Grandview neighborhood just before 8 a.m.
The Grandview Police Department said nearby Belvidere Elementary School was notified of police activity, but officers cleared the neighborhood before the school day began.
