Vehicle pursuit ensues
Law enforcement officers were in hot pursuit of a man suspected of firing shots upon them at a Kansas City airport hotel.
At about 11:19 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 16, officers were investigating a suspicious vehicle with suspected traces of blood and shell casings in or around the vehicle at the Super 8 Motel located at 11900 N.W. Plaza Circle Drive in Kansas City.
Suddenly, three gunshots rang out in the parking lot and police officers say they observed a male jerk his gun back inside the driver’s side window of a black vehicle. Police activated the emergency equipment on their patrol vehicle and begin to chase the suspect southbound on Ambassador Dr.
The suspect failed to stop and steered south in the northbound lanes of Ambassador Dr. until reaching St. Clair Ave. Eventually, the suspect reached Barry Road and turned eastbound at a high rate of speed, police say. According to authorities, as the chase continued, the suspect swerved across the lanes of traffic and began to travel in the wrong direction down Barry Road.
The suspect drove over 90 mph with his headlights turned off, according to court documents. Multiple vehicles were forced to swerve off the road to avoid a head-on collision with the suspect’s vehicle, police say.
The suspect also ran multiple red-light signals and blew through several stop signs, according to police.
Law enforcement officers deployed stop sticks just across the county line, near the intersection of Barry Road and North Oak Trafficway. The suspect struck the device and lost a tire. Still, the suspect continued to travel in a “reckless manner” attempting to elude police, according to the allegations.
When the suspect reached Cookingham Road and North Oak Trafficway, police noticed the vehicle was heavily smoking and was down two tires. The pursuit came to an end near Hwy. 291 and Ruth Ewing and the suspect, identified as Colton Howe, was taken into custody.
During an investigation, a witness at the hotel told police she was with Howe before the high-speed chase and told him to create a diversion after she noticed police sniffing around at the hotel.
Police recovered several shell casings from the general area that the shots were fired. Howe denies owning a gun and claims he fired an air soft gun into the air, according to court documents.
The Platte County Prosecutor’s Office charged Colton Howe, 21, of Kansas City, with resisting a lawful stop and unlawful use of a weapon. Howe remains in custody at the Platte County Detention Center, with bond set at $150,000.