Police still looking for homeless man accused of stealing squad car

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A homeless Kansas City man has been charged with robbery and resisting arrest after police say he stole a squad car, led officers on a high-speed chase and abandoned the vehicle on a rural stretch of Interstate 35 in northern Missouri.

Joshua Boyd, 30, was still on the run Friday after stealing the Kansas City police cruiser from a gas station around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. He was charged with theft in Jackson County on Thursday.

Before the theft, Boyd told an officer he was schizophrenic, off his medication and was afraid people were after him, according to a probable cause statement.

An ambulance was called to the scene, but Boyd instead jumped into the patrol car and sped off, police said. An officer who tried to stop him from leaving by holding the gear shifter and trying to remove the key managed to get out of the way and was not hurt.

A pursuit hit speeds of over 100 mph on Broadway in the heart of the city before officers lost sight of him, police said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol found the squad car alongside the interstate at 4 a.m. Wednesday near Pattonsburg, a tiny town of about 350 residents an hour north of Kansas City. State troopers and Daviess County sheriff’s deputies have continued patrolling the area in case Boyd surfaces, but so far they have no idea of his whereabouts.

“We’ve gotten zero on this thing,” said Jake Angle, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol. “We haven’t gotten a call. We haven’t gotten a tip. There’s been nothing.”