KC police audio captures drama of arrest following KCK detective’s shooting

In the beginning, the call sounded routine.

A Kansas City police officer calmly told dispatchers May 9 that he was following a speeding driver on Bruce R. Watkins Drive who refused to stop.

But within seconds, the officer realized he was tailing the metro area’s most wanted man.

“He’s really flying,” the Metro Patrol Division officer told dispatchers. “I know it’s a silver Ford Focus, I believe from the KCK shooting.”

At that moment, law enforcement agencies throughout the city were looking for the driver of a silver Focus stolen in Basehor.

They believed he was the person who had gunned down Brad Lancaster, a Kansas City, Kan., police detective, near Kansas Speedway in western Wyandotte County that morning. The shooter had stolen the detective’s car, wrecked, carjacked a woman’s car with her kids inside, abandoned it and finally stolen another car — a silver Ford Focus.

The Kansas City chase that led to the capture of Curtis Ayers, 28, did not last long, according to a recording of the police radio traffic obtained Friday by The Kansas City Star.

With police following, the Ford’s driver continued south on Watkins Drive and exited at Bannister Road.

As the vehicle veered off the highway, the driver lost control and slammed into a concrete bridge post. He jumped out and ran up a hill to Watkins Drive.

“I lost sight of him,” the officer told dispatchers. “White male wearing all dark clothing. He’s got a long gun. He was crossing the exit ramp toward Bannister.”

The dispatcher requested other available patrol cars to respond to Bannister and Watkins Drive.

“What’s your current location?” she asked the pursuing officer.

“I’m on foot,” he responded. “We got shots fired somewhere up the hill.”

That apparently is when the shooter tried to carjack a woman’s car but shot her in the shoulder instead. She drove off.

Other officers, most from the nearby South Patrol Division, soon arrived to help the Metro officer.

“The shots are coming from south of Bannister Road, in the brush,” a South Patrol officer told dispatchers. “South of Bannister. We’ve got a long gun.”

At one point, an officer yelled, apparently to a passer-by, “Get out of here!”

“He’s on 71 highway! Hang on,” the Metro officer shouted. “He’s shot. Shots fired. Party down. Up on the highway.”

Another officer announced: “I think he got hit. He’s down.”

And just like that, it was over.

Ayers, 28, faces charges in three counties related to the May 9 crime spree, including capital murder in the shooting death of Lancaster. He also is charged in Wyandotte County with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.

Authorities in Leavenworth County charged him with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and criminal possession of a firearm in the Basehor incident.

And in Jackson County, he is charged with first-degree assault, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, resisting arrest and three counts of armed criminal action stemming from the incidents at Bannister and Watkins Drive.

On Friday, Ayers remained hospitalized in Kansas City under police guard.

When he’s ready to leave the hospital, police intend to lead him away in Lancaster’s handcuffs.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "KC police audio captures drama of arrest following KCK detective’s shooting."