Updated at 3:05 p.m. Monday.
A man who earlier had held a woman at gunpoint near Ridgeway was shot Monday morning when he exchanged gunfire with a highway patrolman north of Pattonsburg.
Sheriff Josh Eckerson said a man and woman pulled off Interstate-35 at the Ridgeway exit at about 10:46 a.m. Tuesday and forced their way into a home in an apparent robbery attempt. The couple briefly held the occupant of the home at gunpoint. The couple left the scene and fled south on I-35. The sheriff’s department broadcast a description of the vehicle.
Highway Patrol officers located the car a few minutes later off I-35 at the junction of Route N and Highway 69 where the vehicle had crashed into a ditch.
The male suspect abandoned the car and fled into a pasture west of the highway where he began firing at a trooper. The suspect received a gunshot wound to the abdomen in the exchange, but the trooper was not hit. The woman also jumped out of the car but was taken into custody without incident.
A Lifeflight helicopter picked up the wounded man from the pasture and flew him to a Kansas City hospital.
No information was available on the condition of the suspect.