Man killed in officer shooting fired more than 30 rounds from handgun, police say
Authorities said Tuesday they think the man killed by law enforcement early on Memorial Day morning was in the throes of a mental health crisis — but they aren’t exactly sure what was wrong.
What is known is that Wichita police talked to 49-year-old Robert Sabater twice in the hours before a neighbor of his called 911 to report hearing sounds that resembled gunshots coming from somewhere down the street.
Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred said Sabater had called authorities at 8:57 p.m. Sunday, saying he was “hearing people talking” outside of his home, in the 1900 block of South Glenn, and wanted police to check it out.
He called again at 11:06 p.m., saying “people were in his backyard” and that one had a gun.
Officers went out both times and found nothing, Allred said.
About two hours later, at 1:21 a.m. Monday, police returned to Sabater’s house after the neighbor told a dispatcher that he was hearing “gunshots or somebody throwing big fireworks out their door,” according to a clip of the 911 call played by police during a Tuesday afternoon news briefing.
Law enforcement officers remained outside of Sabater’s home watching him and trying to contact him for more than a half an hour as Sabater fired more than 30 rounds inside of the house.
A few times he shot outside, striking three nearby homes and a patrol car, Allred said.
“We don’t know exactly the mental health issues he was having. We know that there was some there that caused some of this to occur that day,” Allred said Tuesday.
At around 2 a.m. Monday, Sabater bolted outside and ran down the street, shouting and waving a Glock handgun with an extended magazine, Allred said.
Officers told Sabater several times to drop his gun, but he didn’t listen, Allred said. When Sabater reached the intersection of Dora and Glenn, officers again told him to put down the weapon. But he refused and instead pointed it at police officers and Sedgwick County Sheriff’s deputies who went to the address to help, authorities said.
“At that point shots were fired” by law enforcement, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said.
Ten officers — five Wichita police officers and five Sedgwick County Sheriff’s deputies — fired a total of 56 rounds at Sabater in response to the raised gun, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many times he was hit.
Sabater’s death is the second fatal police shooting in Wichita in less than a week and the third this year.
Allred said that police “do believe that he was firing at officers.” A recording of the emergency radio traffic from Monday morning reflects that.
At one point over emergency radio an officer shouts: “Shots fired! Shots fired! He’s shooting from the front!”
Later, an officer says: “He’s opening the door and firing blindly out the door. Make sure that these houses are empty!”
Officers also talk over emergency radio about how Sabater keeps peaking out of his window and has something in his hand that “looks like a gun.”
Speaking in radio code, one describes Sabater as “extremely” mentally disturbed and a drug user who has threatened to kill “any officer that he can.” But it wasn’t clear from the emergency radio traffic whether that was a current or old threat.
A patrol supervisor with whom Sabater had “a good rapport” tried to reach him by phone to diffuse the situation before the shooting but wasn’t successful, Allred said Tuesday. Some of Sabater’s neighbors evacuated their homes or were hiding behind their houses for safety, Allred said.
Police officers had also taken cover to avoid getting hit by any of the shots Sabater was “sporadically firing,” police said.
“We’re very lucky that someone didn’t get shot and killed besides Mr. Sabater,” Allred said.
Police say its unclear whether Sabater was under the influence of any substances leading up to his death, or whether his actions were mental health-related only. An autopsy was being performed Tuesday.
Court records show Sabater had an extensive criminal history stretching back into the 1980s including a cocaine possession conviction that he was due to be sentenced for on July 12. He admitted to having a drug addiction in some court documents.
”When mental illness sets in and you have paranoia and delusional behavior, these are the types of things that can happen,” Easter said.
All of the officers and deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave for now, Allred and Easter said. The Wichita police officers who shot at Sabater have been with the department for 8 months, two years, three years and seven years, Allred said.
The deputies who fired have been with the Sheriff’s Office for 11 years, three years, two years, 1 1/2 years and less than a year, Easter said.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is helping the police department and Sheriff’s Office investigate the shooting “to provide transparency and avoid conflicts of interest,” police said Tuesday.
Authorities plan to present the case to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for review.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 2:19 PM.
