ATCHISON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a St. Joseph man for an attack on a 75-year-old man who provided him a ride into Atchison.
Just after 11a.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to report of an altercation and a man running with a gun near 4th and Kansas Avenue, according to a Atchison Police Chief Mike Wilson.
Upon arrival, officer located Dakota Penland, 24, St. Joseph, who was hiding in the bed of a pickup parked in the 400 Block of Santa Fe in Atchison.
Investigators determined that Penland and a woman were walking on Pawnee Road in rural Atchison County when a 75-year-old man driving a pickup stopped to give them a ride into Atchison.
When the pickup stopped to drop Penland and the woman off at 4th and Kansas Avenue, Penland hit the driver in the face with a handgun and took the truck keys, according to Wilson.
Penland and the woman fled on foot when a witness approached.
Penland was booked into the Atchison County jail on requested charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm, according to Wilson.
Officers found the woman a short time later. She was hiding in the hallway of an apartment complex nearby.
Atchison County EMS treated the 75-year-old victim at the scene.