A Missouri man who was shot by an Independence, Mo., police officer as he attempted to strike the officer with his truck before leading officers on a high-speed chase, was sentenced in federal court for illegally possessing a firearm.
Isaiah Fulson-Dewberry, 29, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to seven years and six months in federal prison without parole.
On June 29, 2020, Fulson-Dewberry pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Two Independence police officers were dispatched to Pepperwood Apartments on Sept. 1, 2019, on reported prowlers. The officers arrived at the apartment complex in separate vehicles and approached from opposite directions. Fulson-Dewberry, driving a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche (later determined to be stolen), pulled out of a parking space and began driving through the parking lot. When the first officer’s marked patrol vehicle approached, Fulson-Dewberry put the truck in reverse and went back into the parking area, driving up onto the curb into the grass. The truck then drove forward and deliberately rammed the front end of the officer’s vehicle. Two passengers – a white female and a black male – ran from the truck and were never located. The truck backed up again and slammed into a parked truck, pushing it into another parked vehicle, and then rammed into the front of the officer’s vehicle a second time.
The truck backed up again, clipping the front end of the second officer’s patrol vehicle, and then went forward again, hitting the front of the patrol vehicle and pushing it. The officer was outside of his vehicle and Fulson-Dewberry swerved the truck at him. The officer, fearing for his life, fired 10 rounds from his duty weapon into the driver’s side of the truck.
Fulson-Dewbery fled from the apartment complex and a pursuit was initiated. The truck made it onto westbound 39th Street. The truck drove on the shoulder of the road, passing vehicles at a high rate of speed and running red lights at busy intersections. The truck also entered into oncoming traffic, nearly striking two different eastbound vehicles head-on. The truck proceeded onto southbound Lee’s Summit Road and attempted to get onto the ramp to westbound I-70, but was traveling too fast and spun out into the ditch just onto the ramp to westbound I-70 from Lee’s Summit Road.
