KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, mayor and police chief on Thursday praised law enforcement’s response to an allegedly impaired man who led officers on a chase at 50 to 60 mph along the Chiefs Kingdom Champions Parade route.
Police Chief Rick Smith, who addressed the media the day after the parade, said it was “wonderful decision-making” by officers that the incident ended without any injuries, including to the suspect, who was charged with resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor DWI.
“I can tell you all that I’ve talked to many officers that were on the route: We came this close to having a police-involved shooting at this incident,” Smith said at the news conference. “I even talked to a couple of our snipers that were deployed; they were having the same thought. We were very fortunate that this ended when it did and how it did.”
Smith said the suspect, identified as 42-year-old Addae Doyle, rammed through a 6-foot barricade located at Berkley Riverfront Park while a volunteer was working to check people in to the VIP entrance there.
Doyle went past several police cars and ran through the fence, dragging it for several feet along the route, according to Smith.
As police pursued Doyle, he reached speeds of between 50 to 60 mph, according to bystanders. A Clay County sheriff’s deputy deployed stop sticks and deflated the vehicle’s tires.
An Independence police officer, identified at the news conference as JT Hand, performed a tactical vehicle intervention, known as a PIT maneuver, near Pershing Road and Grand Boulevard.
Smith said that the biggest concern was that the vehicle would veer off the route and into the crowds of pedestrians that had already gathered hours before the parade.
“I can’t thank these officers enough for their decision-making, their abilities, their skill to get this ended correctly,” Smith said. “They did a hell of a job.”
Hand, the officer who performed the PIT maneuver, said that when he began to pursue Doyle, he did not know the suspect's intent or whether it was terrorist activity.
“We knew we had to end it, and luckily, we had an opening,” Hand said, who jokingly added that he’s had no training on PIT maneuvers other than seeing it “on TV once or twice.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas said that the officers’ response was a result of “exceptional” work and planning by law enforcement.
“Every day in America, there are stories in the news about police activities, what went wrong,” Lucas said. “If you think about yesterday, you see an amazing example of what went right.”
Smith also said that it was the first time the Kansas City Police Department has asked neighboring agencies in Kansas to help with security for the event, citing a change to both states' laws several years ago.
KCPD said Wednesday that it had requested assistance for the parade from 19 neighboring agencies.
