Policeman assaulted, vehicle rammed in rampage Suspect on the run
A CONVICTED armed robber and alleged police basher remains on the run after a rampage at a Townsville shopping centre. Vincent man Kasie Richard Clifford Rice, 29, was suspected to be responsible for ramming a car and almost mowing down a policeman at Deeragun yesterday morning. Rice was on a three- year parole order when he reportedly removed his GPS tracker ankle bracelet late last week. He was on parole after pleading guilty in May to smashing a man in the head with a tyre iron, armed robbery a and more than 30 other offences including assaulting p police and illegal p possession of a shotg gun and revolver. A return- to- prison warrant had been taken out for Rice after the removal of the tracker, before y yesterday’s incident.
Police had tracked Rice to Supercheap Auto at Deeragun about 11.40am yesterday and were trying to arrest him when he seriously assaulted one officer.
Rice fled into a waiting dark grey 4WD which he drove into a wall, before reversing and ramming into a parked white 4WD driven by a middle- aged pair of holidaymakers from Bathurst, NSW.
The dark grey 4WD then sped off and Rice remained on the run as of late last night.
Police on the scene would not confirm the name of the fugitive, but confirmed he was known to officers and they would commit plenty of resources to bring him back into custody. “This is a very motivated person who does not appear to be willing to surrender to police,” Townsville police district duty officer Senior Sergeant Tony Jacobs said.
A nearby worker said CCTV footage showed Rice had almost run over a policeman as the 4WD reversed off the wall.
Townsville woman Cheyann Armstrong had to reverse her car out of the way to avoid it being hit as the drama unfolded.
She saw two police officers in vests with their hands on their guns and realised something was “going down”.
She said a woman in the passenger seat of the darkgrey 4WD next to her tooted the horn and a man, believed to be Rice, came running out of the store, jumped in and took off.
In February Rice was charged over a scuffle with police inside a stolen ute, during which he had a .22- calibre handgun and a shotgun within reach.
Rice’s tracking bracelet had been attached as part of bail conditions imposed by the parole board in May.