Homicide victim, 83, assaulted by son in parking lot, police say

An 83-year-old Winfield man whose death was ruled a homicide by the coroner’s office earlier this month was visiting his 57-year-old son when his son attacked him, Wichita police said Wednesday.

The Eagle first reported Monday that Wendell Hendricks’ death on Feb. 9 had been deemed a homicide by the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center. He had been in the hospital since Jan. 24 with a fractured nasal bone, fractured femur and other injuries but was unable to recover.

Sgt. Nikki Woodrow, during the Wichita Police Department’s daily weekday news briefing with reporters Wednesday, said Hendricks and his wife went to the apartment complex where Hendricks’ son lives, in the 1500 block of West 23rd Street North, Jan. 24 to check on him because he’d been “acting strangely.”

Hendricks’ wife contacted authorities at 10:51 a.m. that day to report an assault, records show.

When officers arrived, they found Hendricks and his son lying on the ground in a parking lot of the complex, Woodrow said Wednesday. They were near one another.

“Mr. Hendricks contacted his son in the parking lot and was attacked by his son” there, Woodrow said.

An ambulance took Hendricks to a Wichita hospital for treatment of a broken nose, broken hip and other blunt-force injuries, Woodrow said. He was in serious condition at the time.

His autopsy report, which was filed in Sedgwick County District Court on March 1, says Hendricks underwent surgery on Jan. 25 to repair his hip, but a variety of issues – respiratory failure, septic shock, a lung infection and blood loss included – hampered his recovery.

He died while hospitalized 16 days later.

Hendricks’ son was taken to a hospital in a police vehicle, police records show. At the time, he was suffering from minor injuries and a mental issue, records show.

Woodrow said Wednesday that he has been undergoing a mental evaluation and has not been arrested.

The case will be presented to prosecutors next week for possible criminal charges, she said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Homicide victim, 83, assaulted by son in parking lot, police say."