GRAND RAPIDS — A man who led police on a high-speed chase through Lansing after allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend and trying to shoot a person who tried to help her has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
Maurice Ray, 32, of Grand Rapids, also will have to serve three years on supervised release after leaving prison for being a felon in possession a firearm, court records indicate.
In April 2025, Ray’s girlfriend called 911 to report she was being kidnapped on a ride to Lansing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He threw her out of the moving car, dragging her down the street on her knees, officials said. And after a neighbor came out to help her, Ray returned with a gun drawn, then forced the girlfriend back into the car, pointed the gun at the neighbor and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire, officials said in the release
Police made a traffic stop on Ray, but after a standoff, he drove off with the injured girlfriend still inside the vehicle, they said.
“Ray led multiple patrol cars on a three-mile pursuit through Lansing, at times exceeding 90 miles per hour,” the release said. “When he was eventually cornered and arrested, Lansing police retraced the chase route and found a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol on the side of the road with Ray’s DNA on the trigger. The unexpended round in the chamber had a striker mark, indicated it had misfired.”
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Lansing Police Department. Ray was convicted after a jury trial.
This case is part of a national initiative called Operation Take Back America, which is tied to the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhood, the government said.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Man who led police on high speed chase in Lansing gets federal prison sentence
Reporting by Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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