Carjacking Crisis: Students drive past the site of a stolen and crashed car

A stolen silver Saturn crashed into a curb near Colonial Church in the Village around 10 p.m. on Jan. 3.

Two perpetrators armed with a handgun were responsible for the carjacking and were caught after driving around for about an hour and a half, according to the Shawnee Mission Post. Because of the close proximity of the crashed car to East neighborhoods, students who were already on the road drove past the scene.

Anthony Mazza and Leah Sherry

While juniors Leah Sherry and Anthony Mazza were driving junior Emmy Sullivan home around 10:50 p.m., it turned into an opportunity to “investigate” the crime. Sullivan got a call from a friend, informing her that police were patrolling Mission Hills due to a stolen car. Sherry and Mazza noticed an abnormal number of police cars on their usual route to Sullivan’s house, so after dropping her off, they stayed to explore the scene.

The two drove through neighborhoods and spotted a helicopter circling Indian Hills Country Club, police officers carrying rifles and police dogs sniffing around the area.

“Stuff like this never happens around here, so we were like ‘This is a once in a lifetime thing,’” Sherry said. “We just happened to be driving around during it.”

Sherry and Mazza drove in big circles around Mission Hills for about an hour in order to avoid the cops. After realizing all the police were gone, they drove down Tomahawk Road where they saw four cop cars turn on their lights and sirens and speed towards Prairie Elementary. 

“We heard later that they caught somebody right there [at Prairie Elementary] which was probably like a two-minute drive from my house,” Mazza said.

Mazza and Sherry got home around 12:30 a.m., two hours after they started scoping out the scene.

“It was kind of exhilarating and my heart was beating so fast the whole time,” Sherry said.

Hattie Brooks and Zane Laing

Sophomores Hattie Brooks and Zaine Laing were driving near East at 9:30 p.m. — relishing their last few days of winter break — when they witnessed cop cars speeding down Mission Road.

Confused, they made their way down Mission, but were forced to turn because police officers were blocking off nearby streets. They found themselves near the Prairie Village Shops where they spotted the crashed silver car.

“[The car] was crashed and the doors were all open and there was a cop with a gun pulled out,” Brooks said. “It was crazy.”

The two called Laing’s dad to explain the situation to him and see if he had heard anything.

“Zane’s dad looked it up for 10 minutes and then called us back and was like, ‘Hey, there was an armed car robbery, they’re still looking for these dudes. You have to lock the doors and come back to this house so that you don’t get carjacked too,’” Brooks said.

Brooks and Laing followed directions and drove to Laing’s house where they listened to the police scanners on his phone for updates.