Police: Modified shotgun found; no one inside Wichita house after three officers hurt

Wichita police found no one inside a supposedly vacant house where three officers were wounded in a shotgun blast that they originally believed was an explosion.

Police had been called to the house after the owner believed someone was inside. After the officers were hurt, a special weapons and tactics team and bomb squad spent several hours stationed outside the home, attempting to find out if anyone was inside.

Investigators were using drones and robotics to search the home late Saturday night.

In a Sunday morning news release, Wichita Police Department spokesman Officer Trevor Macy said no one was found inside the house, which is in the 1400 block of South St. Francis. That’s a few blocks northeast of the intersection of Broadway and Harry.

Police did find a modified, loaded shotgun. Macy said in the news release the shotgun “discharged as the officers made entry.”

Officers were dispatched at around 4:04 p.m. Saturday to check the house. The residence was supposed to be vacant, but the homeowner had called 911 after noticing broken windows, believing someone might be inside.

The officers were given a key to the front door. Soon after going in, they reported hearing an explosion. All three were injured and taken to a hospital.

One officer was treated and released Saturday evening. The other two remained hospitalized Sunday morning, one with minor injuries and the other with serious injuries. Their wounds are non-life-threatening.

“Their spirits are good and appreciate the support they are receiving,” Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said in a Saturday night tweet. “We are praying for a speedy recovery.”

During a news conference earlier in the day, Ramsay said investigators were unsure how the officers were injured.

“They went inside and almost immediately when they got into the threshold there was some type of ... shots or explosion,” Ramsay said. “We don’t know if someone was inside, if this was a booby trap, we don’t know if this was a gun or some type of improvised device.”

Even after finding the shotgun, the department still has unanswered questions about what happened. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting with the investigation.

“Apparently there were several modifications made to this one,” Macy said, telling The Eagle that investigators are looking into whether the weapon was rigged to fire when the door opened.

No one is in custody, but “there are a few person of interest that we are looking into,” Macy said.

Nearby homes were evacuated, Ramsay said.

Most neighbors told The Eagle they didn’t hear any explosion, but they did see police swarm toward the house.

One woman said her children told her they heard gunshots, but she wasn’t sure if they were being honest since they laughed afterward. Haroon Birva said he heard a boom when outside of his girlfriend’s home on St. Francis.

“It sounded like a rifle or an AR round,” he said. “I just heard one.”

The Wichita police and Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team as well as the WPD bomb squad staged outside the house for several hours, uncertain whether anyone was inside.

Multiple armored vehicles were brought in for the incident. Law enforcement drones flew overhead, and a surveillance plane, likely from the Kansas Highway Patrol, circled the area. Firefighters also responded, as did the ATF.

Officers in camouflage held rifles as they hunkered behind a vehicle across the street from the home, which is south of Zimmerly. Another officer, who had a rifle pointed at the home, looked on from the open hatch atop an armored vehicle parked in the road.

At around 6:30 p.m., police negotiators started using a loudspeaker in an attempt to communicate with anyone inside the house. Police reassured that the injured officers would be OK. They said “we know you’re scared.”

“Walk outside the front door, hands up, unarmed, and you will not be harmed,” negotiators said over the loudspeaker.

Officers used shields to move onto the front porch multiple times. An officer over the loudspeaker repeated a phone number to be called. Officers also used the loudspeaker to ask for someone to switch a light on and off if they were OK.

By 9 p.m., law enforcement drones and robots had been searching in and around the house for approximately 90 minutes. At some point during the night, investigators determined no one was inside.

Investigators remained at the scene Sunday morning.

This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 6:24 PM.