Botched Brighton car sale ends with gunfire, Nebraska arrests

    MINDEN, NEB. – Two South Dakota men face a total of 15 charges for their roles in a carjacking, chase and shooting incident over the weekend that began in Brighton and ended in a small Nebraska community.
    Cash bond for Petr Strizheus, 18, of Harrisburg, S.D., and 22-year-old Aleksandr Voznyuk, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was set at $1 million each Monday afternoon. Their preliminary hearing is at 1:30 p.m. CST, Feb. 24, in Buffalo County (Neb.) Court.

Photo courtesy of the Kearney Hub

Aleksandr Voznyuk

Photo courtesy of the Kearney Hub

Petr Strizheus

    The district attorney’s office there charged Voznyuk with eight counts, including attempted first-degree murder of a police officer and use of a firearm, both felonies, and obstructing a police officer, a misdemeanor. Strizheus faces seven counts, including attempted murder of a police officer (a felony) and possession of a stolen vehicle and felony flight to avoid arrest.
    The Nebraska State Patrol caught Voznyuk near a feedlot Saturday southeast of Kearney, Neb., which is about 300 miles northeast of Brighton. Minden police captured Strizheus near a public library about noon Saturday. Neither man was armed.
    The incident began Friday night at a Target store in Brighton. The victim, an unidentified Brighton man in his early 20s, wanted to sell his car on Craigslist. He met the two suspects in the parking lot, and the three agreed to take a test drive.
    Adams County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Terrance O’Neill said the three drove to an area not far from Platte Valley Medical Center and pulled into a housing development cul-de-sac. The two suspects told the victim to get out of the car. The victim got out, and one suspect (Strizheus, according to an arrest affidavit) left out the front seat of the car. O’Neill said the suspect in the back seat (Voznyuk) brandished a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol.
    “The two suspects told the victim to run,” O’Neill said. “Before he ran, he looked back and heard a shot, then heard a second shot. Then he saw the two leaving in his car back toward 144th Avenue (on the frontage road).  That was the last time he saw his car.”
    O’Neill said the victim used his cell phone to call 911. Deputies searched the area around the housing development and found evidence that matched the gun the suspects used, O’Neill said.
    The victim was not hurt.
    About five hours later, a Nebraska state trooper began chasing the car after it wouldn’t pull over near the town of Odessa, about 300 miles northeast of Brighton. According to the arrest affidavit, speeds reached in excess of 145 mph.
    After the car left the interstate, the affidavit said Voznyuk fired as many as eight to 10 rounds at the trooper’s car, hitting it at least once. Later in the pursuit, Voznyuk’s arrest affidavit said he fired three to five more rounds at the trooper’s car. No one was injured.
    The chase ended a half-mile north of the Fort Kearney Feedlot in the town of Minden, 30 miles southeast of Odessa. Both suspects got out of the car. Police and troopers used their forward-looking infrared device to find Voznyuk in a field near the feedlot. He was unarmed when police took him into custody around 2 a.m. Saturday. An ambulance took Voznyuk to a local hospital for medical clearance before the suspect went to the Buffalo County Jail.
    Police found Strizheus seated at a computer desk at a public library in Minden around noon Saturday. NSP spokeswoman Deb Collins said a librarian reported a suspicious person to local police. Strizheus was unarmed when police caught up with him. He, too, was taken to a local hospital for medical clearance before authorities took him to the Buffalo County Jail.
    O’Neill said deputies plan to travel to Nebraska and bring the suspects back to Brighton to face pending local charges.
Kearney Hub reporter Kim Schmidt contributed to this report.