Kansas City police officers shot and killed by prisoner

[Nergal]

 

THE two Kansas sheriff’s deputies who were shot and killed by an inmate while transporting him between the courthouse and jail were both parents, authorities say.

The inmate, whose name hasn’t been released, shot Wyandotte County Sheriff’s deputies Theresa King and Patrick Rohrer on Friday in a gated area behind the county courthouse. He may have used one of the deputies’ own guns to shoot them during a struggle after he got out of the van, authorities said. The inmate was also shot and underwent surgery on Friday. Terry Zeigler, the police chief of Kansas City, Kansas, said at a news conference that as far as he knew, the man was in stable condition.

Rohrer, 35, died shortly after the shooting. He had been with the force for seven years and leaves behind two young children, Wyandotte County sheriff’s Maj. Kelli Bailiff said. King, 44, died early on Saturday at a hospital. She had three children, including a young one.

Zeigler said the authorities were withholding the inmate’s name until he’s been formally charged, which is expected to happen next week.

Witnesses at the scene told of the chaotic scenes after the shooting.

John Garcia walked out of the Wyandotte County Courthouse just after 11am (local time) on Friday when the sound of gunshots sent dozens of people into a panic, Fox News reports.

“Right when I was walking out, that’s when I heard two shots fired,” Garcia said. “We heard a shot. We heard boom!”

Garcia said he had just wrapped up a routine legal hearing inside the courthouse when the tragic scene unfolded.

“We seen an officer shot in the head carried off on a stretcher,” Garcia said. “We saw another officer shot on the chest.”

Officials declined to go into more specifics about how the shooting happened, though Bailiff said the deputies had “followed proper procedure.” A candlelight vigil for the deputies will be held at City Hall.