‘Officer in trouble. Shots fired’: Person killed by police outside Wichita McDonald’s

One person was killed in an officer-involved shooting Wednesday night at a McDonald’s parking lot in Wichita, officials said.

The shooting happened after 11:18 p.m. near the McDonald’s in the 500 block of North Hillside, which is across the street from Wesley Medical Center.

During a traffic stop, officers told a passenger in the back seat that he would be detained and to step out of the vehicle, but he refused, Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford said.

“The suspect refused multiple verbal commands, leading to a struggle,” Ford said. “The suspect was able to free himself from the officers while still seated in the vehicle and then produced a firearm.”

Officer ran to the back of the vehicle while shouting “gun, gun, gun,” Ford said, and heard a shot from inside the vehicle.

“This caused the officers to fear for their safety, prompting them to return fire inside the vehicle, striking the suspect,” he said.

Calls over the Sedgwick County Emergency Communications scanner traffic said: “Officer in trouble. Shots fired, shots fired.”

Officials on the scanner also relayed the person had been shot twice in the head, but investigators later discovered the man had shot himself once in the head before the officer shot him in the arm and torso. The man died at the scene. A firearm was recovered, officials said.

Additional details will have to come from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, which will investigate the shooting as part of the protocol implemented since Chief Joe Sullivan took over in fall 2022.

The sheriff’s office said it would release details on Friday.

This is the city’s third officer-involved fatal shooting of the year, but one of those involved a deputy on the joint Wichita police and sheriff’s office SWAT team. There were no fatal shootings by officers in 2023 and one in 2022.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after an Aug. 6 news conference to reflect that the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said the man had shot himself once in the head before being shot by a Wichita police officer.

This story was originally published August 1, 2024 at 9:49 AM.