By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Two have been taken into custody after a pursuit begun in Andrew County ended with an on-foot manhunt in St. Joseph.
Andrew County Sheriff Grant Gillett says one of his deputies approached a vehicle suspected of being stolen, parked on County Road 287, near the intersection with County Road 288 around 3:40 this morning. The car sped off and Andrew County gave pursuit.
The vehicle drove southbound on US Route 169 and ran over spike strips laid down by a deputy, blowing out the passenger-side tires. Still, the vehicle kept going, this time driving the wrong way on I-29. Gillett says he called off the pursuit at that time, but reengaged with Buchanan County deputies and St. Joseph police once the vehicle hit the intersection of I-29 and Frederick Avenue in St. Joseph.
The two ditched the car behind the Drury Hotel and took off on foot, literally, running out of their shoes, barefoot. Officers took a 27-year-old woman into custody. The man escaped, only to the captured around seven o’clock this morning in the parking lot of the Stoney Creek Inn. The man is 29 and from the Kansas City area as is the woman.
Gillett says the vehicle was reported stolen in the Kansas City area. The sheriff says the two are wanted on several charges and drugs were found in the vehicle.
Names are not being released, pending the filing of formal charges.