Charges say a man twice tried to escape custody from St. Paul police officers on Tuesday, first by running in the jail’s sally port, where he also attempted to take an officer’s holstered gun, and then later by jumping out of a wheelchair at Regions Hospital and running through the parking lot.
Kyle Stuart Vanwert, 39, of St. Paul, was charged Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts each of felony attempted escape from custody and felony disarming of a police officer. He remained jailed Friday in lieu of $185,000 bail ahead of a court hearing set for Wednesday.
Kyle Stuart Vanwert (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Vanwert has two other pending court cases. In September, he was charged with stealing a Lincoln Navigator while a St. Paul officer was performing roadside field sobriety testing on the driver.
According to this week’s complaint:
Officers arrested Vanwert around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday near the Higher Ground/Dorothy Day shelter campus in downtown St. Paul while investigating an apparent hand-to-hand drug deal. The investigation revealed Vanwert was wanted on a January warrant for missing a court hearing in the auto theft case.
An officer transported Vanwert to the Ramsey County jail and pulled into the sally port, or secured area. When the officer opened the squad car’s rear passenger door, Vanwert, who had managed to slip one wrist from his handcuffs, pushed his way out the car and ran to one end of the sally port. He tried to open a door.
Vanwert then ran to another door. When it wouldn’t open, he began kicking it.
The officer deployed his Taser, and Vanwert went to the ground and rolled onto his stomach.
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When the officer tried to put Vanwert in handcuffs, he rolled onto his back, put both his hands on the officer’s gun and pulled, the complaint says. The officer dropped the Taser and put his hands on the gun to keep it holstered.
The officer delivered “knee strikes” to Vanwert’s ribs, which caused him to release his grip on the gun, the complaint says. Vanwert tried to grab the Taser from the ground, but the officer beat him to it and delivered a “drive stun” to his buttocks.
Vanwert then grabbed hold of the Taser at the probe end. When the officer said he might have to use lethal force, Vanwert said, “You’re going to have to kill me.” The officer then delivered multiple punches to Vanwert to try to gain control of him.
Other officers arrived and used a Taser and pepper spray to get him under control.
The officer suffered injuries to hands and a knee.
Vanwert was evaluated at Regions Hospital and cleared for release. As two officers tried to put him in the back of a squad car for a transport back to the jail, he jumped from his wheelchair and ran through the parking lot. The officers chased him, taking him to the ground. He was taken to jail, and booked.
In April, Vanwert was charged with first-degree burglary for allegedly using a hammer to break into an apartment at the Dorothy Day shelter, where he lived.
Vanwert also faces a fleeing police charge in Hennepin County in connection with the September auto theft case. After he jumped into the Lincoln Navigator and sped away, police used the driver’s cellphone, which was still in the SUV, to track him to a gas station at Nicollet Avenue and 77th Street in Richfield, according to the criminal complaint.
When officers arrived, Vanwert drove off in the Navigator. Richfield and Bloomington officers pursued the SUV and took him into custody at an airport hangar.
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