Bank robbery suspect jailed on nearly 30 alleged criminal offenses

A suspect arrested in downtown Wichita after a police chase faces a long list of potential criminal charges, police records show.

Derrick Billoups, 45, was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of 29 criminal offenses, many of them traffic infractions, after he led law enforcement officers on an extended pursuit that ended near Via Christi Hospital St. Francis at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Billoups wasn’t booked into jail until about 6:45 p.m. following treatment at a hospital for dog bites. Authorities said a police dog helped subdue Billoups. Police said he was trying to flee officers after crashing a gray Ford Focus in a hospital parking lot.

Billoups has been linked to as many as 12 recent crimes and is suspected of committing a series of robberies over a four-day span ending Tuesday, Lt. Todd Ojile said Thursday.

He is suspected of robbing the Presto convenience store at 1350 N. Oliver and the Emprise Bank branch at 2323 S. Hydraulic about three hours apart on Tuesday morning. He has also been linked to the hold-up on Saturday morning of the Subway restaurant at 311 E. Pawnee and the robbery at 3:15 a.m. Monday of the Presto at 6115 E. Air Cap Drive in Park City.

Ojile gave this account of Billoups’ capture:

Officers from Patrol North’s SCAT team recognized Billoups in a stolen gray Ford Focus just after 9:15 a.m. Tuesday at 13th and Hydraulic. The officers attempted to stop the car, but Billoups sped away and a chase began.

It would continue for 14 minutes, first heading north to the area of 21st Street and Minneapolis, where a 35-year-old friend of Billoups bailed from the moving Focus and was run over by the car. She was taken to Wesley Medical Center and admitted for treatment of broken bones, a police report stated.

Billoups then headed south to the central business district, where he ran stop signs and went the wrong way on a one-way street at least once before he drove into a parking lot of Via Christi Hospital St. Francis. At that point, “several vehicles were struck by the suspect’s vehicle,” Ojile said.

He ran from the car into a medical building about 100 yards away. He was arrested there with the assistance of the police dog.

The vehicles involved in the chase reached speeds of 70 to 90 miles an hour at times, Ojile said. But the chase was not called off in spite of potential safety concerns.

Due to the number and nature of Billoups’ crimes, Ojile said, “he was looked at as a violent offender and the arrest needed to be made.”

Investigators had identified Billoups as the suspect in the bank robbery by late Tuesday afternoon and had spent the evening and following morning looking for him.

Ojile credited “outstanding teamwork” by the larceny, robbery, homicide and gang units in identifying and locating Billoups. The Focus he was driving had been stolen from a local car lot, though the dealership did not realize the car was missing until they were told by authorities.

A pellet gun was found in the stolen car, Ojile said.

“We’re not sure if that’s what he used yet” in the bank robbery or other recent crimes, he said.

Investigators recovered “a substantial amount of cash” on Wednesday, he added, but they aren’t sure yet whether that’s all the money that was stolen from the bank.

Billoups is being held on $100,000 bond. His alleged crimes include four counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of theft, two counts of possession of stolen property, two drug-related offenses, criminal possession of a firearm and battery.

Sedgwick County District Court records show Billoups has a bevy of felony and misdemeanor convictions for robbery, theft and other crimes committed in California and Sedgwick and McPherson counties stretching back to 1985. He is currently awaiting sentencing in a felony theft case in Sedgwick County District Court.

In that case, Billoups pleaded guilty to stealing a 2015 Ford Explorer from Rusty Eck Ford in September, court records show.

He also spent time in a Kansas prison on aggravated robbery, burglary and misdemeanor theft convictions from a 1997 McPherson County case, according to department of corrections records. His sentence expired Aug. 28, 2013.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 9:01 AM with the headline "Bank robbery suspect jailed on nearly 30 alleged criminal offenses."