Man killed by Wichita police on Sunday had gun, ignored officer orders, official says
A Wichita police official said Sunday that one of the department’s officers fatally shot a 41-year-old man who refused to follow commands to reveal a metallic object he had concealed under a blanket and started to point a gun in their direction.
Jess Jackson died at a home in the 800 block of North Terrace after an officer fired four shots inside of a bedroom at the address, Wichita police Capt. Jason Stephens said during a Sunday afternoon news conference. Stephens said officers went to the home after Jackson’s ex-girlfriend went to a local QuikTrip convenience store around 2 a.m. Sunday and told a clerk that he was threatening to harm her and himself.
The girlfriend gave the clerk Jackson’s name, the address where he was staying and said that Jackson had fired three shots into the windshield of his vehicle parked outside of the Terrace home, Stephens said. She also told the clerk Jackson was wanted by police.
The clerk relayed the information to the dispatcher, who sent officers to both the QuikTrip and to the home on Terrace.
Stephens said when police arrived at the QuikTrip, on Central and Oliver, the woman had already gone. Police interviewed her later.
Officers who went to the home in the 800 block of North Terrace saw the vehicle the woman had referred to parked outside, with damage that appeared to be a bullet strike, Stephens said. A man who lives at the address answered the door and said that Jackson was inside but that he knew nothing about a disturbance. He let three officers inside to check on Jackson’s welfare and investigate the woman’s report while three other officers stayed outside, Stephens said.
The officers who went into the home found Jackson in a bedroom at the back of the house, lying on a bed with his hand under a blanket, Stephens said.
He said as police talked to Jackson, one officer noticed a “silver metallic object in the area of that blanket.”
After police asked Jackson to get off of the bed for their safety, Stephens said Jackson moved the blanket “deliberately” and dropped the metallic object on the floor, causing a “thud” sound.
Stephens said the officers gave Jackson several verbal commands that he ignored, asked what he was hiding in the blanket and told him several times to put his hands up and to not touch the metallic object.
Jackson reportedly bent over and reached for the object anyway. When he stood up, Stephens said Jackson “displayed” a handgun and began to point it in the direction of officers.
One officer, “believing that any one of them were about to be shot,” fired four times at Jackson after seeing the gun, he said. Jackson threw the gun on the bed after that officer decided to shoot him, Stephens said.
Wichita police showed a brief video clip at Sunday’s news conference of Jackson’s interactions with the officers in the moments before the shooting, including where he dropped the blanket on the floor and raised the gun. Police also showed a still photograph of the gun after it had been tossed by Jackson onto the bed.
The officers immediately secured the bedroom and began “lifesaving measures” on Jackson, Stephens said. But he died at the scene.
Stephens said shortly after the shooting, officers found Jackson’s ex-girlfriend at another address and interviewed her about the events that prompted her to seek help from the QuikTrip clerk. She told authorities that she had been dating Jackson since the summer of 2020 but recently “severed that relationship based on some drug-related issues,” Stephens said.
He said the ex-girlfriend reported that Jackson had made “irrational statements” following their break-up, had been hallucinating, threatened to harm her pet and had threatened to burn down her house. She also told authorities that she had reported a domestic violence disturbance to Wichita police on Oct. 1 that involved Jackson physically assaulting her the prior day, Stephens said.
Asked what happened in the hours leading up to her report to the QuikTrip clerk, the woman told police that Jackson had told her by phone and text messages that he wanted to harm himself, threatened to “engage in a shootout,” would “be dead before police arrive” if she called authorities and sent her a photograph of the bullet damage to his vehicle, Stephens said.
The woman also told police that Jackson told her via text that he was armed and “that the next bullet is for her,” Stephens said.
Stephens described the officers’ approach to Jackson as cautious and said “we’re not really sure why he reacted that way.”
He said Jackson had been staying at the home on Terrace for “a few days” after moving out of his ex-girlfriend’s house and was wanted on a number of warrants for failing to appear in court on a DV case in Wichita, traffic violations in Wichita and Newton, and for a domestic violence case in Oklahoma.
Stephens said the officer who fired the fatal shots has been working for the WPD for about a year and is currently on administrative leave, which is standard practice in the department following a police-involved shooting.
The WPD has asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to help investigate the shooting, Stephens said, adding that the findings will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for review after it’s complete.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 1:17 PM.
