Deputy shoots man who reportedly fired gun near Wichita DCF building
Updated 4:45 p.m.: A Sedgwick County Sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a man who was firing a handgun near the Wichita Department for Children and Families building near Pawnee and Oliver on Tuesday afternoon — and that man has been taken to the hospital in serious condition, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Myers said.
Myers said the man, in his 60s, appears to be homeless and may have been intoxicated while he was shooting. The man failed to follow orders given by a Wichita police lieutenant who was at the scene with the two sheriff’s deputies and other officers, Myers said.
The man “pointed the handgun in the direction of the officers so a deputy ... fired two rounds” with a rifle, Myers said. The man was hit in the upper torso, wounding him, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter told reporters after the shooting. He was rushed to Wesley Medical Center for treatment.
The deputy fired the rifle from about 300 yards away, Easter said. It’s unclear how long the deputy has been with the Sheriff’s Office.
Myers said members of the public called 911 to report a man firing a gun in an open field north of the DCF building, 2601 S. Oliver, at 2:57 p.m. Tuesday. The two deputies arrived within nine minutes and saw a man standing south of the building, shooting a handgun “in different directions,” Myers and Easter both said.
“Wichita police officers arrived, took up a location behind a building over here and the deputy had a rifle and had set up in a location with some cover, had him (the man) in the sights to be able to see what he was doing,” Easter said. When the man “leveled the handgun” toward the officers, “deputy fired two rounds, striking the individual one time.”
Myers said the WPD lieutenant was trying to talk to the man before the deputy fired “but there wasn’t any dialogue” back.
Law enforcement don’t know why the man was shooting or whether the handgun belongs to him. Investigators also don’t know whether the man had a target, but “there is no indication whatsoever” that he was aiming for the DCF building, Easter said.
The man gave up his gun when a SWAT team approached him in a vehicle, Easter said. No one else was harmed during the shootings, Myers said.
Easter said authorities know who the man is but they were not releasing his name immediately Tuesday. The Sheriff’s Office is expected to release more details Wednesday. Myers said the shooting near the DCF building isn’t related to a second police shooting that happened near Club Rodeo, on Kellogg and Webb, around the same time Tuesday afternoon.
Original story: The Department for Children and Families building near Pawnee and Oliver in Wichita was locked down Tuesday atg 3:19 p.m. a person fired shots in the area, DCF spokeswoman Taylor Forrest said by phone.
Forrest said someone was “apparently in a ditch or a little field ... behind the building” when a gun was reportedly fired sometime before 4 p.m.
The gunfire “wasn’t at the building or in the building,” she said, adding that DCF “put the office on lock down to ensure the safety of clients and staff.”
“Police were on site handling the issue and that individual (who reportedly fired the shots) has been apprehended,” Forrest said.
The lock down was lifted at 3:57 p.m., she said in a follow-up email.
No one was hurt at the building, she said by phone. DCF is the state agency that provides child and family welfare services.
Wichita police did not immediately respond to a request for information about what caused the lock down. Kansas.com will post more information when it becomes available.
This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 4:25 PM.