Two Lansing prison escapees in custody in Missouri; search for third escapee includes area near Bonner Springs

Archive for Friday, May 10, 2013

Staff and wire reports

May 10, 2013

EDGERTON, MO. — Two of three inmates who walked away from a northeast Kansas prison surrendered Friday afternoon at a northwest Missouri home where they had been holed up for hours, authorities said.

The search for the third escapee has included southeastern Leavenworth County.

Allen M. Hurst, 31, and Scott A. Gilbert, 49, walked out on to the back deck of a rural Edgerton home after several hours of negotiations with law enforcement, Platte County Sheriff’s Capt. Erik Holland said.

The whereabouts of 57-year-old Randy A. Ridens Sr., who escaped with the other two early Friday from Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing are not known, though Leavenworth County Sheriff Andy Dedeke said officers were searching on foot and going door-to-door Friday looking for Ridens in rural portions of Bonner Springs in Leavenworth County.

Dedeke said officials were searching south of Kansas Highway 32 and east of 166th Street in Leavenworth County, as Ridens originally is from that area.

On Friday morning, Platte County officers tried to pull over a stolen car in Platte City. Shots were fired at deputies at least twice during the ensuing chase, Holland said. The officers, who did not return fire, were not injured.

Hurst and Gilbert bailed out of the vehicle after it became stuck in the home’s yard. Then they broke into the house about 30 miles north of Kansas City. The owner was away at the time, and Holland said there is no connection between the homeowners and the men.

Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay said Hurst and Gilbert were both convicted in Sedgwick County, Kan., in 2010 of multiple counts of burglary and theft. Ridens was convicted in the Kansas counties of Shawnee and Douglas in 2010 of several burglary counts and one count of theft.

“We have a couple pretty good leads on Ridens, and we are tracking that down,” Barclay said. “We hope to have Ridens safely in custody sooner rather than later.”

He said authorities believe Ridens parted ways with Gilbert and Hurst before the chase.

During the standoff, multiple law enforcement officers were on the scene. Highway Z, the only road that goes past the house, was also closed.

The North Platte R-1 School District kept students at an Edgerton intermediate school that serves fourth- to -sixth-graders inside for most of the day, although most of the students and staff were elsewhere Friday participating in field day.