Man flees police in car with flat tires

By Roseann Moring

Published Feb. 8, 2008

A man led law enforcement officials on a chase that started in Columbia and ended in Moberly early Thursday morning, police said.

Robert E. Williams, 33, had been wanted for a parole violation since Dec. 14, 2007, said Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Hauswirth.

Based on information from the Kansas City branch of the FBI, Columbia Police Department tried to locate Williams at on Scott Boulevard.

Williams left in a vehicle, but police officers saw him, according to a news release from CPD.

According to the release, Williams drove east on Broadway then turned north on Highway 63.

In two separate places, police used spikes to flatten his front tires, but he continued north out of Columbia, where Missouri State Highway Patrol Troopers took over the chase.

According to the release, patrol troopers chased him to the southern edge of Moberly, a distance of about 40 miles. Williams made the 40-mile trip with flat front tires. He then left his car and fled a short distance on foot, until Randolph county deputies and Moberly Police Department officers apprehended him, the release stated.

According to police, the chase lasted 37 minutes.

Hauswirth said a Department of Corrections investigator worked with the FBI Violent Fugitive Task Force, various police departments and the Highway Patrol.

“Without that partnership and sharing of information it’s hard to locate these individuals,” he said.

Police found a bottle of clear liquid, which they believe to be the hallucinogenic drug PCP, in his vehicle, the CPD news release stated.

Hauswirth said until Dec. 14, Williams behaved according to his parole.

“He reported as he should have,” Hauswirth said. “He’d been following the rules.”

Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in June 1991 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but was released on parole in January 2005.

Hauswirth said a parole officer would interview Williams and send a report to a parole board, which can revoke his parole. He can also be prosecuted separately for the chase.

Williams was arrested on suspicion of driving with a suspended or revoked license, resisting arrest, violating a parole warrant, second-degree trafficking of a controlled substance and careless and imprudent driving.