Wichitan arrested after multi-county chase that ends after officer’s car hit, official says
A multi-county chase with a 44-year-old Wichita man driving a truck with an empty boat trailer ended Monday night in Augusta after spike strips were used and the driver hit an Augusta officer’s vehicle, sending both of them to the hospital, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday afternoon.
Allan Milton Firman III was treated and released from a Wichita hospital and then booked into the Butler County Jail on suspicion of aggravated battery on an officer, aggravated assault on an officer, fleeing and eluding, drug charges, driving under the influence, transporting an open container and reckless driving.
He has a first appearance in court Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Augusta Department of Public Safety officer was also treated and released.
Additionally, a 47-year-old Derby woman who was in the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado with the suspect was treated and released.
The call started around 6 p.m. in Greenwood County after a report that the suspect had hit another vehicle and then refused to stop for police, Butler County undersheriff Daimon Cundiff said in a news release.
The Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office stopped its pursuit after the driver crossed into Butler County on US 400. Soon after, Butler County Emergency Communications received a call about a “truck (that) had gone into oncoming traffic at a high rate of speed in a construction zone near Beaumont, Kansas,” Cundiff said.
The construction zone was limited to one lane controlled by temporary traffic lights.
A Butler County deputy spotted the truck near US 400 and Pickrell Road, which is about 8 miles east of Augusta.
“The deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop but the truck continued westbound at normal speeds,” Cundiff said. “Other deputies were able (to) set up tire deflation devices along the highway ahead of the fleeing truck. At one point, the driver of the truck swerved into the median to avoid the tire deflation device, narrowly missing one of the deputies, and then continued westbound in the eastbound lanes of US 400.”
The deployment of a second spikes strip near US 400 and Lunger Road in east Augusta was successful.
“The truck entered the City of Augusta and struck a marked (officer) vehicle occupied by an Augusta police officer,” Cundiff said. “The truck was disabled and the driver was taken into custody.”
The driver hit the back-left corner of the police vehicle.
