Chase ends in assault arrest

A Columbia man was apprehended Friday night after escaping from the Boone County Sheriff’s Department’s custody at University Hospital and fleeing through the MU campus, according to a release from the sheriff’s department.

Tywan L. Johnson, 24, was arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of assaulting a woman living in the apartment complex where he was staying.

The victim, a 25-year-old resident of the 400 block of East Park Lane Sunrise Estates, told detectives that Johnson had threatened her with a knife at 8:10 a.m. as she was leaving her apartment to go to work. She reported that he forced her into the apartment where he was staying and said she was cut with the knife when she struggled with him. He proceeded to physically and sexually assault her, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Sgt. Michael Stubbs of the Sheriff’s Department, said the victim eventually convinced Johnson to let her leave.

“She succeeded in talking him down,” Stubbs said. “She told him that if she wasn’t allowed to go to work, someone would come to see what had happened to her.”

According to the release, the victim drove herself to the emergency room, where she reported the assault at 11 a.m.

Two deputies were dispatched to the apartment building to locate Johnson for questioning. Johnson was not home, but a resident told the deputies where Johnson worked.

Stubbs said that when the deputies visited Johnson’s place of work, Johnson stepped behind a Dumpster. When the deputies called to him, he ran, Stubbs said. The deputies caught up to him and physically restrained him when he tried to fight them, Stubbs said. Johnson received minor injuries that were treated later at University Hospital.

After he was released from the hospital Friday evening, Johnson, who was handcuffed, escaped from a deputy near the hospital parking garage.

Cassandra Leuty, the desk attendant on duty at MU’s Lathrop Hall, said that at about 7:30 p.m. she saw several police officers running across the Dobbs Pavilion courtyard with their guns drawn.

Leuty said the officers told students in the courtyard to go inside.

Johnson was caught at 7:39 p.m. at Providence and Stewart roads after a deputy used a taser on him, according to a release. Johnson requested medical treatment, but later refused it.

He has been charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action, forcible sodomy, felonious restraint, first-degree burglary and felony resisting arrest. He was taken to the Boone County Jail where he was being held as of Saturday evening on a $300,000 cash bond.