A Kansas SWAT officer shot a 23-year-old Aurora man after he brandished a knife following a hostage standoff in Dover, Kan., today, authorities said.
Jesse Dennis Dimmick was taken to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury just before noon, said Topeka police Capt. Jerry Stanley.
Dimmick is a suspect in the murder of a man whose body was discovered Thursday in a room at the Carriage Motel Inn, 9201 E. Colfax Ave.
Kansas officials also arrested Shayne Michael Miller, 35, believed to have rented the motel room where the body was found, in connection to the Aurora murder. He was discovered in a Salina, Ks. hotel late Friday night.
The confrontation with police happened after hostage negotiators arranged the release of two hostages who were held at knife-point in a rural Kansas home and SWAT officers stormed the house, Stanley said.
The Associated Press reported that the two hostages, who were newlyweds, slipped out of the house after Dimmick fell asleep. They were unharmed, Stanley said.
Saturday’s violent confrontation was the culmination of a two-day mass search for the murder fugitive.
A Geary County deputy first spotted Dimmick on Friday around 2:30 a.m. and tried to pull him over for a traffic violation, said Geary County Undersheriff Carlos Roman.
Dimmick sped away, leading the deputy on a 10-mile high-speed chase along a country road. The suspect crashed the car and ran into a wooded area about 15 miles southeast of Junction City.
“We spent all day and all night looking for him,” Roman said.”He’s pretty desperate.”
Early this morning, a second deputy spotted Dimmick in a stolen Chrysler Town and Country minivan and gave chase.
When they crossed the Geary County line, a succession of jurisdictions joined the hour-long chase as Dimmick crossed through county to county.
When Topeka police took up the chase they set a tire-deflation stick in the road.
Dimmick continued driving on the deflated tires until he drove onto the front lawn of a house in Dover, a rural town with only a few businesses, farmhouses and a school, Stanley said.
Dimmick ran into the house and threatened the two newlyweds with a knife. After the couple left the home, the SWAT team threw “flash-bang” distraction devices inside the home.
A SWAT officer shot Dimmick as he brandished a knife.
Dimmick is also wanted in Louisiana and North Carolina.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
