A suspected armed car thief was in jail Wednesday after he led police on a chase through St. Paul and held them at bay after crashing into a house in Maplewood.
Police arrested Kelly Gordon Sauer, 48, about 1:30 a.m. following a four-hour stand off with police outside a home on the 1700 block of Sylvan Street, said police spokesman Steve Linders.
Crisis negoitators on the scene de-esclated the tense situation after Sauer told officers that he had a gun, was not coming out of the car and that police "were going to have to kill him," Linders said.
Events began around 9:30 p.m. when officers on patrol spotted a stolen Honda CRV at the intersection of Edgerton Street and Arlington Avenue. The driver, identified as Sauer, took off when police attempted to make a stop. Speeds hit 40 mph as Sauer drove north on Payne Avenue, then accelerated to more the 90 mph as he went left on Larpenteur Avenue, Linders said.
He took a left turn onto Sylvan Street, which is a dead end. Out of options, he attempted to turn around in a yard where he crashed through a fence, struck the staircase of a deck and a retaining wall, Linders said.
As police moved in to make an arrest, Sauer cracked the window, displayed what officers believe was the barrel of a shotgun and told them he was not coming out.
The standoff ended when Sauer came out of the car.
No injuries were reported and police did not have to use force in making the arrest, he said.
