How the deputy killer’s 27-mile crime spree began on the streets of Wichita

Thirteen hours before Robert Cody Greeson died in a gunfight that fatally wounded sheriff’s Deputy Robert Kunze, Greeson attacked an 18-year-old Wichita man in his driveway and drove off in his car.

The carjacking was the beginning of Greeson’s ultimately deadly spree.

Greeson’s string of crime scenes would stretch 27 miles from southwest Wichita to northwest Sedgwick County. It ended Sunday afternoon when a mortally wounded Kunze — already shot by Greeson — shot down Greeson north of Garden Plain.

Sheriff’s investigators tracked Greeson’s path by connecting his crimes.

On Thursday, five days after Greeson vaulted onto 18-year-old Resley Simone in the darkness in his driveway, the young man was still processing what had happened to him and the deputy.

Simone didn’t know early Sunday morning that Greeson — a 29-year-old who spent time in prison for aggravated battery and drug crime convictions — was invading Simone’s street.

Greeson was lurking from driveway to driveway, trying to open car doors.

A neighbor’s video would show Greeson — wearing a hood over his head, sunglasses and gloves as he tried a truck door.

Simone had come home early Sunday morning and locked the door of his 2008 silver Dodge Charger. A little before 1 a.m., the recent high school graduate came back outside to get in his car to run an errand. But he realized he forgot his phone charger and went back inside. He left the car unlocked for just a minute.

That was long enough for Greeson to slip into Simone’s car.

When Simone returned to his car and opened the door, he heard a noise — a rustling from the back seat.

As Simone glanced back, a man lunged over the console and pushed Simone down onto the driveway.

It stunned Simone.

The attacker quickly dragged him to the sidewalk along the street, in a neighborhood of newer, neatly kept homes in the 3300 block of South Bolin. The block is visible from I-235 where it winds near West Street.

As micro-seconds flashed by, Simone realized he was being robbed.

The attacker pulled Simone by his hoodie and punched three or four times into the teen’s face and head.

The robber reached into Simone’s pocket and took the car keys.

Simone lay on the sidewalk, thinking.

“I just thought he was going to kill me,” Simone recalled.

“I don’t believe he said a word to me.”

“I was yelling” — to get help.

As soon as Simone heard his car engine start, he darted inside, woke his parents and told them he had just been robbed.

His father ran out. His mother called 911.

Wichita police came and took Simone’s account. At that point, Simone thought it was more of an everyday theft.

Hours later, on Sunday night, Simone was working when his mother called and told him to come home right away.

Two Sedgwick County sheriff’s investigators needed to talk with him.

After Simone pulled up to his house, he recalled, “My dad comes up to the car, and he tells me this guy (the one who attacked him) just killed a deputy.”

They asked him about the carjacking.

“They basically told me that he’s (the attacker) not going to be a problem anymore … They said a deputy had lost his life.”

Earlier, before everyone heard about the deputy, Simone said, his father talked with Greeson’s relative. The relative said Greeson used methamphetamine and drove the relative’s car to Simone’s neighborhood, leaving it in a driveway around the corner. The relative had been notified and came to recover the car. A neighbor told Simone’s father that there were two guns in the vehicle.

Sunday night, officers found Simone’s car in a ditch between Garden Plain and Cheney. It had been wrecked.

A Wichita police report says that besides the Dodge Charger, Simone’s attacker took his wallet, driver’s license and other identifying items.

At the spot where Deputy Kunze encountered Greeson on Sunday afternoon — about 13 hours after Greeson carjacked Simone — Greeson was driving a stolen black pickup, Sheriff Jeff Easter said. Greeson also is suspected of stealing a .40 caliber handgun from a vehicle along West MacArthur between Garden Plain and Cheney. Investigators found a .40 caliber handgun near Greeson’s body in a ditch where he and the deputy fought and shot each other. Deputy Kunze was found lying near Greeson.

It’s not clear how the sheriff’s investigators tracked the crime spree to the Simone home in Wichita.

As of Thursday, Simone said this of dealing with his experience: “It’s gotten a little better. I’m a lot more cautious than I was, especially at night.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2018 at 5:57 PM with the headline "How the deputy killer’s 27-mile crime spree began on the streets of Wichita."