A dramatic low-speed police pursuit near Kansas City, Missouri, concluded with a fiery spectacle on Sunday night. The suspect’s aging truck, often referred to as a “hoopty,” flipped over and erupted into flames, as captured by crime scene footage.
Authorities reported that the suspect, who later confessed to deputies he was “high on meth,” drove into a wooded area behind his residence before abandoning the smoking pickup and fleeing on foot around 11:20 p.m. The dramatic sequence was recorded by a dashboard camera in a deputy’s vehicle.
Shortly thereafter, flames engulfed the truck, with a fiery blast emanating from the cab, extending several feet from the driver’s side, creating a startling scene.
This dashcam image from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office reveals the moment the suspect’s vehicle ignited after a slow-speed chase evolved into a foot pursuit across a field.
In a playful recount of the incident on their Facebook page, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office remarked, “That moment when the suspect you’re pursuing flees on foot, leaving his hoopty truck to catch fire and explode, causing it to roll into an empty patrol car.” The post featured the dramatic video footage.
See the dashcam video:
After the suspect vaulted over a fence and sprinted through a field, the deputy abandoned his patrol car to chase him down on foot, ultimately apprehending him.
“Fortunately, no one was in the vehicles, they were off running in a field, so no one got hurt,” according to the sheriff’s office. “And we got the suspect into custody.”
The fire spread quickly, knocking the vehicle out of park, according to authorities. (Clay County Sheriff)
According to local reporting, deputies first encountered the driver during a traffic stop. He allegedly had no plates on the vehicle and appeared “shaky” and under the influence, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital.
When a deputy asked him to exit the vehicle, he allegedly drove off, leading the deputy on a chase that never exceeded 45 mph, she said.
The burning truck rolled back into the deputy’s parked vehicle. No one was hurt. (Clay County Sheriff)
A second deputy arrived, chocked the truck’s tires and backed the patrol vehicle to safety before it caught fire, too. Kansas City firefighters stopped the spread of the blaze, which had destroyed the pickup and moved into nearby brush.
The suspect was released after a 24-hour investigative hold expired, according to the sheriff’s office. Prosecutors filed a felony charge of resisting arrest Wednesday night, and deputies are working to take him back into custody.
