Two dead, one wounded in Riverside shooting that ended when police shot armed suspect

Wichita police say a man shot his estranged wife and killed his mother-in-law before he was fatally shot by an officer during a standoff tied to a domestic violence incident in the city’s Riverside neighborhood Wednesday morning.

Jason A. Williams, 37, of Wichita, was killed by police fire during the standoff, which lasted for more than an hour. Williams is suspected of killing his mother-in-law, 52-year-old Michelle Barr, and injuring his wife after going to his mother-in-law’s home in the 900 block of North Faulkner on Wednesday morning and shooting out the front glass window so he could get inside.

Williams’ wife, 30, suffered a gunshot wound to her left shoulder. The couple’s two young children, 5 and 7, were at the home during the shooting and standoff but weren’t hurt.

Court records show Williams and his wife were going through a divorce that had become contentious in recent days. The couple also had a recent history of domestic violence that includes a Dec. 9 incident where Williams allegedly grabbed and pushed his estranged wife against a car. She had recently sought a restraining order against him, police have said.

Police said Wednesday that a call about a shooting came around 7:05 a.m. and drew officers to Barr’s house, located in Wichita’s Riverside neighborhood. When officers arrived, they heard shots and saw a 36-year-old man — Williams’ brother-in-law — jump out of a window to escape the gunfire, Wichita police Chief Gordon Ramsay said at the scene shortly after the standoff ended.

“We received information from that male that there had been a shooting inside the home,” Ramsay said.

William’s wife had him served with a protection from abuse order on Tuesday, Ramsay said, and he made his way into his mother-in-law’s house Wednesday morning. Williams’ wife was inside the house with her mother, two young children and her brother.

Police said in an afternoon news release that Williams fired at least 25 rounds, including while he was inside of the house. Authorities brought in Wichita police’s Special Weapons and Tactics — or SWAT — team, crisis negotiators and a mental health advisor to help convince Williams to surrender peacefully.

But, Ramsay said, Williams told negotiators “he was not going to come out alive.”

Negotiators eventually talked Williams into letting his children go a couple of hours after police were first called. The children and Williams’ wife exited the rear of the house at about 8:35 a.m.

SWAT team members were waiting in an armed vehicle to pick them up and “taken them to safety,” police said in the news release.

Williams followed them out. Police say he was armed with two handguns and “physically prevented his wife from leaving.”

“As the two children were being let outside the home there was an altercation between him and the wife outside the back door … and an officer fired one time,” Ramsay said at the shooting scene.

The news release says the officer who fired was “concerned for the safety” of the children and their mother. The officer discharged one round that hit and killed Williams.

Inside the home, police found Williams’ mother-in-law dead, police said. Her body had several gunshot wounds.

Wednesday’s altercation wasn’t the first that had turned physical between Williams and his estranged wife. Records show he was facing a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in Wichita Municipal Court for allegedly “grabbing her arms and pinning her against a car” shortly after 5 p.m. at 3840 N. Ridge Road. The address belongs to a medical office specializing in ear, nose and throat conditions.

Recently Williams had complained to a family law judge handling their divorce case that his wife wasn’t allowing some of his court-ordered parenting time and had made several non-emergency health care decisions for their two young children without talking to him. He had asked a judge to hold his wife in contempt, order her to pay his attorney’s fees and let him make up the missed visitation time. A court date was pending.

Williams’ wife filed for divorce in November and had moved into her mother’s home with the couple’s children, court records show.

The municipal court charging document says Williams battered his wife on Dec. 9 “knowingly and in a rude insolent or angry manner.” He was given a summons and appeared in Wichita Municipal Court on Dec. 22. Records show he was due to return Feb. 2 for his next hearing.

An order associated with the domestic battery charge meant to keep Williams from contacting with his wife had expired at 5 p.m. Monday, court records show. Police have said Williams’ wife also filed for a civil protection from abuse order that he was served with Tuesday. Those records were not immediately available.

Jennifer Ray and her boyfriend, Kyle Filiatreault, who live next door to where the shooting occurred, heard it all unfold shortly after waking up.

They heard around 30 shots in increments of 10, called 911 and crawled down the hallway to keep cover from the shooting. When police arrived, they heard two more shots.

“We just sat upstairs in the dark and then the police called and told us to get in the basement,” Ray said. “It’s crazy how much you don’t know, even right next door.”

The officer who killed Williams is an 18-year veteran of the Wichita Police Department. That officer has been placed on paid administrative leave, “which is standard protocol in officer-involved shootings,” according to the police news release.

Police say the Kansas Bureau of Investigation assisted with the shooting investigation “to provide transparency and avoid conflicts of interest.” Authorities also plan to present their investigation to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for review.

The killings are the 58th and 59th homicides of 2020, breaking the 1993 record of 57 homicides. The Wichita Police Department considers 52 of this year’s homicides to be criminal in nature. The rest are considered justified or accidental killings, or were officer-involved shootings. There were also 52 criminal homicides in 1993, Wichita police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson said.

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 9:57 AM.