PLATTE CITY, Mo. — A suspect is hospitalized with critical injuries Thursday morning after a Leavenworth police shooting in Platte County. 

Around 12:45 a.m. Leavenworth police were called to assist EMS and the Leavenworth Fire Department with a domestic dispute at a home near Spruce Street and Columbia Avenue.

“I thought he was going to comply at first but then, all of sudden, like I said, he just took off. And I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to end well,'” neighbor Lexie Sanchez said.

After a preliminary investigation, officers began searching for a 25-year-old male suspect wanted for attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated domestic battery involving strangulation and violation of a protection order. 

Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said the suspect was spotted in his vehicle in Leavenworth. When officers attempted to stop the man, he sped off, leading police on a chase into Platte County, Missouri.

The chase ended near Missouri 45 Spur and 92 Highway, and the suspect and officers exchanged gunfire, police said. Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen did not specify if the officers or the suspect fired the first shot. 

Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen said the suspect was shot and taken to North Kansas City Hospital where he’s currently in critical condition.

FOX4 is not identifying the suspect at this time because he has not been charged.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office described the incident as the culmination of an extremely serious domestic situation where the suspect violated an order of protection.

“It started off as a domestic but it escalated, it sounds, rather quickly,” Owen said.

Neighbors in Leavenworth said they heard the commotion.

“I just hear like a cop, just ‘weeoo weeoo’ sirens,” Sanya Zambrano said. “And then I hear a car like ‘vroom’ going through here, and then I hear a cop going behind it.”

“I look out the window, and it’s like 10 cop cars outside my house, and there’s like a blue Chevy truck just parked,” said Lexie Sanchez, another neighbor. “So I was like everything going to be fine. They’ve got him pulled over. No big deal.”

But that wasn’t the case.

“They’re telling him to get out of the car, shut off the engine, put his hands on the roof,” Sanchez said. “And then all of sudden he just takes off down the road. Cops go flying after him.”

Just over the Centennial Bridge, the pursuit ended. There’s no word so far on why the suspect pulled over, and details are still thin on what led to the shooting as well.

Police have not yet said if this suspect had a weapon. Owen only said there was an altercation during the traffic stop.