DA: No charges for Wichita officer who shot, killed man who pointed gun at officers
A Wichita police officer who fatally shot a man after he pulled a handgun on officers who had ordered him to come outside a north Wichita home will not be charged, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Thursday.
Jess Jackson, 41, of Wichita, was shot and killed by an officer early on Oct. 3, 2021, after he refused to follow commands to reveal a metallic object he had concealed under a blanket and started to point a gun in the officer’s direction, The Eagle previously reported.
The officer who fired the fatal shots had been working with the department for roughly a year and was placed on administrative leaving after the shooting.
Bennett shared his findings about the shooting Thursday.
“The investigation established that Mr. Jackson had made both threatening and suicidal comments earlier that evening, and had allegedly shot a gun into the windshield of his own car while it was parked on the street in front of the residence at which he was staying,” Bennett said.
The incident began around 2 a.m. when Jackson’s ex-girlfriend told a QuikTrip clerk that he was threatening to harm her and himself. The clerk relayed the information to Sedgwick County Emergency Communications, which dispatched officers to a home in the 800 block of North Terrace where she said he was staying, Bennett said.
Officers contacted a resident of the home who said Jackson had been staying there the past few days. The resident tried to wake Jackson so that officers could talk to him outside. The resident came back out and said he was unable to wake Jackson. He let officers enter the home, according to Bennett.
Officers found Jackson in a bedroom lying in bed partially covered by a blanket. He said he did not have any weapons when he was asked by officers.
As police talked to Jackson, one officer saw a “silver metallic object in the area of the blanket,” police previously said.
Officers asked Jackson to get off the bed for their safety.
“Mr. Jackson responded by making a scooping motion with the blanket,” Bennett said. “Officers heard a thud that they described as something heavy and metal hitting the floor.”
Jackson ignored verbal commands from officers asking him to show his hands and not reach for the metallic object, Bennett said.
Three officers were in the room when shots were fired.
Jackson reportedly reached down for the object. When he stood up, police said he “displayed” a handgun and began to point it in the direction of the officers.
One officer, “believing that any one of them were about to be shot,” fired four times at Jackson after seeing the gun, The Eagle previously reported.
The officer “shot at Mr. Jackson. He went down, with his hands still on the bed, near the gun,” Bennett said. The officer “commanded Mr. Jackson not to reach for the gun. Mr. Jackson leaned forward toward the gun and ... (the officer) shot once more. The shots were fired at 2:23 a.m.”
The officer performed life-saving measures. Emergency Medical Services declared Jackson dead at 3:08 a.m., Bennett said.
Jackson’s ex-girlfriend, the resident of the Terrace home and all three officers in the room were interviewed by Wichita police detectives and agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 4:08 PM.