BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — A home invasion in Blue Springs leads to a drive-by shooting in Independence then a high-speed chase down Interstate 435.
Three suspects are still on the run, while three separate police agencies try to connect the pieces of their crime spree.
It all started Sunday night just before 11 p.m. Three men armed with handguns broke into a Blue Springs home as a 4-year-old and 6-year-old slept in their rooms.
Video from inside shows the suspects unplugging the cameras inside the home. They would then steal three guns — an AK-47 pistol, AR-15 and another rifle — before taking the family’s car.
“This is a .22 bullet. I’m pretty sure it’s still leaking. I got grazed or something right here,” said Monterio Whiles, who was shot in the drive-by.
They then showed up to Whiles’ home where they started shooting.
“I hear a pop, pop, pop, pop, and my PC has tempered glass over it and it exploded,” Whiles said.
The suspects weren’t done, doubling back through the neighborhood. That’s when Whiles got his guns and a shootout ensued as Whiles called police — who spotted the suspects in the car they had just stolen and chased them.
The police chase jumping on I-435 where speeds topped more than 100 mph.
“It appears as thought they don’t really have any regard for human life if they’re going to blindly shoot into a house and they’re going to run from police at those types of speed,” said Officer Jack Taylor with the Independence Police Department.
They then turned all the lights on the car off. That’s when Independence officers stopped chasing because it was too dangerous. The car later turned up dumped in Lee Summit.
“You can go around here thinking that you can do whatever like it’s GTA like we’re playing a game, but this stuff isn’t a game. You guys held guns at children who might be scared for life,” Whiles said.
Whiles said he’s beyond blessed to be alive.
“Oh I know somebody watching over me because the way I was sitting in the chair where the bullets came in, if I would have been laying in bed, standing up I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
FOX4 spoke with the grandmother of the two kids caught in the middle of the home invasion. She said they’re still traumatized by all of this but doing the best they can.
If you have any information on these three suspects, call Blue Springs or Independence police.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-8477.