Man wanted for kidnapping escapes courthouse

By Harvey County Now staff 

Joshua Harris, 47, wanted out of Sedgwick County on a warrant for aggravated kidnapping, managed to escape from the Harvey County Courthouse after a sheriff’s deputy attempted to detain him.

The event took place Thursday morning. 

Sheriff Chad Gay said Harris was in court for a separate case. The court notified the sheriff’s department of the warrant, and the deputy who works security at the courthouse waited for the man to finish court and then attempted to detain him. 

“The guy came out; Jake tried to stop him; he pushed past Jake and ran out of the building,” Gay said.

Department of Corrections records list Harris as 5-feet-10-inchrs and 281 pounds.

“He had a vehicle parked out on Main facing north,” Gay said. “He jumped in, backed up onto Seventh Street, and turned left onto Main to go southbound.

Gay said officers were nearby, but there was quite a bit of traffic on the streets at the time.

He said by the time the officers got near him, he had turned onto a side street. Afterwards, law enforcement was not able to find the white full-sized Dodge pickup the man was driving.

Harris is currently at large.

Gay said the Harris’s warrant was out of Sedgwick County.

“He had a $100,000 bond warrant for aggravated kidnapping,” Gay said. “That’s pretty serious business.”

According to Kansas Department of Corrections records, this isn’t Harris’s first escape.

He was convicted on  charge of aggravated escape from custody conviction in 2005, as well as a fleeing/attempt to elude conviction from 2010. He also has two aggravated battery convictions from 2005, a battery against an officer conviction from 2012, burglary convictions from 2012, and theft convictions from 1994, 2010 and 2013.

Harris was previously arrested in Harvey County on Aug. 9 on a DUI charge, possession of opiates and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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