Judge sentences Olathe man who led pursuit on KC’s Charles B. Wheeler Airport runway

An Olathe man who led police on a high-speed chase down a runway at Kansas City’s Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport 18 months ago was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

Efren Torres-Rodriguez, 35, pleaded guilty in March in the Western District of Missouri to damaging and disrupting an international airport. He also admitted to illegally possessing a firearm.

During a hearing Tuesday, Judge Howard F. Sachs ordered Torres-Rodriguez to spend 78 months in federal prison without the possibility of parole.

On Feb. 1, 2022, prosecutors say Torres-Rodriguez was asleep inside a Dodge Charger, with the engine running, that was parked near an airport gate. Kansas City police officers responded there to a report of a suspicious vehicle. He awoke when officers turned off the car and opened the door.

Prosecutors said Torres-Rodriguez refused to exit the car and took off, crashing through the airport gate and driving down a runway at 100 mph as officers were on his tail. The sports car was rendered disabled after he tried to cross through the grass next to the airstrip.

Torres-Rodriguez had a little less than five grams of methamphetamine in his pants pocket, according to prosecutors. An unloaded handgun was underneath the driver’s seat.

The commotion led to a 40-minute delay of operations at Charles B. Wheeler, which serves corporate, charter and recreational airplanes. Prosecutors say five flights were affected, including one plane that was forced to spend an extra hour in the air for lack of a place to land.

An estimated $23,000 in damage was also calculated, which was paid for by the insurance company holding the policy for Torres-Rodriguez’s car.