Grand Island man sentenced for police chase, shutting himself in stranger’s bedroom

OMAHA, Neb. — A Grand Island man will spend a decade in prison for leading police on a chase and barricading himself inside a child’s room.

On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced 27-year-old Tesluach Gatkuoth to 10 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a gun. A U.S. Attorney’s Office news release says police officers tried to pull Gatkuoth over in Omaha for a traffic violation in 2022. The release says he sped away, eventually ditched his car and ran on foot and then broke into a family’s home.

Prosecutors say Gatkuoth went into a basement bedroom with a teenager inside and shut the door. He eventually exited and officers arrested him. They found a fully-loaded 9mm handgun with high-capacity magazine and a removed serial number hidden in the child’s clothes hamper.

Gatkuoth had previous felony convictions that made it illegal for him to have a gun.