Witnesses describe chase, shooting of suspect in car

Mark Renollet was sitting on his front step Sunday evening when he saw a man in the side yard across the street running right at him, chased by two officers.

“He was about out of gas, it looked like to me,” Renollet recalled on Monday.

The man then turned and ran 50 yards south along Arkansas to the intersection with 29th Street. Renollet noticed that as the man ran, he kept grabbing at his pants pocket without putting his hand inside. Shortly after witnessing the chase, Renollet heard about five gunshots just around the corner.

When the shots rang out, Al Gauna was pumping gas at a convenience store at the intersection. Gauna said he saw an officer holding a gun and firing about five shots from 4 to 5 feet away into the rear passenger side of a four-door car at the intersection, shattering the window. For a while, officers kept guns trained on the wounded suspect who had dived into the back of the car. At one point, Gauna recalled, he saw an older man get out of the car with a woman and console her.

Earlier Monday, Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay described the incident in detail, saying that a police sergeant shot a robbery suspect multiple times because he thought the man was armed and posed a danger to the two people in the car. After the shooting, police determined the man was not armed.

The 24-year-old suspect was in stable condition and talking Monday and was expected to survive, Ramsay said.

The Kansas Department of Corrections confirmed that the suspect who was shot by police is Andrew Villa, a parolee released from prison on Aug. 19. Villa has a lengthy list of convictions, including criminal possession of a firearm, records show.

Ramsay began his Monday briefing by saying he wanted to provide “facts of what we knew at the time” of the shooting and that it is “critical for us to have trust and transparency.” He gave the following account.

At 5:12 p.m., 911 dispatch told police of a robbery at Johnson’s General Store at 53rd Street North and Meridian. Police heard from dispatch that a gun was involved and that an “active fight” was occurring.

At 5:13: The suspect left the store in a black vehicle followed by a witness updating dispatch on the location of the vehicle; that information was being relayed to officers.

Ramsay paused to note that it’s important to know what officers knew at the time, and he played an audio recording of some of the emergency radio traffic so, he said, people could hear what officers were hearing. They heard a report of a gun in the store and a violent encounter there.

At 5:21: A Wichita police sergeant saw the suspect’s vehicle in the 4000 block of North Arkansas, where the driver refused to stop, jumped a curb and went through a front yard in the 3800 block. The speed of the vehicle was around 40 mph, so it wasn’t a high-speed chase, Ramsay said.

On Jackson just north of 29th, the suspect got out of the vehicle and ran through an alley. The sergeant noticed the suspect holding onto his pants as if he had a gun as he got out of the vehicle.

A witness took video of the suspect fleeing from the car, which has helped police corroborate what the sergeant said as far as the suspect running and continuing to hold onto his pants, Ramsay said.

As the suspect continued to flee, he ran through backyards on Arkansas, still holding onto his pants. The chief also said the sergeant was yelling for the suspect to stop during the foot chase.

The suspect ran south on the east side of Arkansas, coming back to the intersection, where he tried to get into a vehicle stopped at a red light. But he couldn’t get in because the door was locked.

The driver of that vehicle thought a carjacking was occurring and drove off, Ramsay said.

The suspect went to a second vehicle, tried a door, and it was locked. He was able to get in through a back door.

A man and a woman were in the car, and the man said he thought that the suspect was “going to kill them” after diving into the back seat, the chief said.

The suspect gave a command: “Go.”

At around 5:23: The sergeant, believing the suspect was armed – based on 911 information and how the man was holding onto his pants – was concerned about the safety of innocent people, that they might be shot or kidnapped. So the sergeant fired, hitting the suspect multiple times from fairly close, Ramsay said.

The suspect was taken to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis, where he underwent surgery.

Records show he was released from prison on Aug. 19, Ramsay said. The man is a documented gang member and is known to Wichita police, he said.

The investigation turned up more information about what happened right before and during the robbery: The suspect entered the store, paid for gas and walked around the counter, demanding money from the clerk. The robber ripped out the cash register and carried it out, and there was a physical altercation between the suspect and the clerk, who was bruised.

The suspect left the store, carrying the cash register, and put it into the rear of the vehicle. He was there with his mother and his 3-year-old son.

A witness removed the child and cash register from the vehicle.

There was a struggle between the suspect and his mother, who suffered minor injuries, Ramsay said. “She was trying to stop her son.” The two fought over the keys to the car, Ramsay said.

The suspect, seeing that his son was no longer in the vehicle, put the child back into the car and fled from the store.

No weapon has been located, and in hindsight, police don’t believe a weapon was involved, Ramsay said. But at the time, he repeated, officers thought there was a weapon.

The sergeant who fired the shots is a 22-year veteran and was not wearing a body camera, because only officers and not supervisors wear them. The sergeant is on administrative leave while the shooting is being investigated.

Ramsay said he wanted to offer support to the family of the wounded suspect, even though the man made a dangerous decision, he said.

The mother has been cooperative with investigators, Ramsay said.

During questioning from reporters, the chief reiterated that a 911 caller had reported a gun being involved and that “people were scared for their life,” that the man in the one car said, “I thought he was going to kill us.”

Officers have to make a “split-second decision in an extremely stressful situation based on the information that you have,” Ramsay said.

He said he would like to have body cameras for all police but that the decision when body cameras were bought was to equip 429 officers. Supervisors such as sergeants, who are not equipped with the cameras, are rarely first on the scene, Ramsay said. There are 60-some sergeants.

Ramsay concluded by saying: “I’m very supportive of video,” that “independent video” is helpful and that “the more videos, I think, the better.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2016 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Witnesses describe chase, shooting of suspect in car."