The Shawnee Indian Mission Fall Festival’s opening moments on Saturday featured an unexpected appearance along 53rd Street.
Fairway police say that one of their officers was on patrol around 10 a.m. Saturday when he witnessed a white male running from an open garage toward a parked Honda on the street. The officer watched as the car pulled away at a high rate of speed from the 5400 block off Pawnee south toward Shawnee Mission Parkway. The officer ran the vehicle’s plates, which turned up stolen. The officer instigated a pursuit of the speeding vehicle along Shawnee Mission Parkway.
The vehicle took a turn onto 53rd Street, and continued west until it reached the barricades put up to block off the road for the Shawnee Indian Mission Fall Festival.
The vehicle “drove around the road closed barricades and through the pedestrian area of the Shawnee Indian Mission Fall Festival,” said Fairway Police Chief Mike Fleming. ” The vehicle had slowed down at this point and no police vehicles were engaged in a pursuit of it.”
The vehicle continued through the pedestrian area and exited to continue westbound on 53rd Street. Police searched the area using K-9 units and drones, according to witnesses. No arrests have been made at this point. No one was injured in the incident.
