Police car video shows high-speed chase to Rolla

Police car video (screenshot above, view the video below) shows suspect Cody Willcoxson fleeing in a small car along Interstate 44 in a chase from Ft. Leonard Wood to Rolla on May 12. He was eventually caught after abandoning the first car and stealing a second in Rolla.
Police car video (screenshot above, view the video below) shows suspect Cody Willcoxson fleeing in a small car along Interstate 44 in a chase from Ft. Leonard Wood to Rolla on May 12. He was eventually caught after abandoning the first car and stealing a second in Rolla.

Video from a camera in a police car shows a St. Roberts officer on a chase as it unfolds from Ft. Leonard Wood to Rolla last week.

The fleeing driver, Cody Willcoxson, was captured on May 12 after abandoning his vehicle and stealing another car.

The 20-minute video, which picks up the chase at St. Roberts and ends with Willcoxson fleeing on foot in Rolla, was posted to YouTube by KYTV.

Willcoxson, a 31-year-old ex-convict from southwest Missouri, faces multiple felony charges in two Missouri counties of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and armed criminal action.

The Missouri Highway Patrol reported that Willcoxson fired more than 80 rounds at pursuing officers, reloading an AK-47 assault rifle as he drove away. Officers recovered several other firearms when Willcoxson was arrested four hours after he was denied entry at Fort Leonard Wood due to concerns over his identification. The guns were believed to be stolen.

Willcoxson drove through a security gate when he was questioned by military guards. Local law enforcement then took up the pursuit along heavily travelled I-44.

Officers put "stop sticks" on the road and punctured a tire before Willcoxson reached Rolla, home to Missouri University of Science and Technology. Police said he was soon forced to ditch the vehicle just before 9 a.m. near the 7,200-student college, where spring classes had already ended. He discarded an assault rifle outside McNutt Hall, which houses the school's Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, and fled on foot.

Willcoxson is accused of then breaking into a nearby home and driving away in the homeowner's Ford Taurus after demanding the keys. He was caught on a county road near Edgar Springs, south of Rolla, and did not resist arrest, authorities said.

Willcoxson was released from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in 2008 after serving about 31⁄2 years for burglary, escaping from jail and other felonies.