No charges against Haysville officers who shot man 12 times in March 2024
Two Haysville police officers will face no charges after they shot and killed a 68-year-old man in March 2024 after he pointed a gun at officers.
Bill Osterhout of Haysville died March 26, 2024, after police shot him 12 times. Osterhout was sitting in his Dodge Ram pick truck in front of Main Street Liquor in the 200 block of North Main when he pointed his gun, a report on the incident from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said.
Sedgwick County DA Marc Bennett cited Kansas’ “stand your ground” law in his decision not to charge the officers.
“I want to make something else clear... because I don’t charge an officer doesn’t mean I give my seal of approval and say it was a wonderful thing that happened here,” Bennett said in a Tuesday Zoom meeting. ”It’s a regrettable situation. The analysis, though, that I do is based upon whether or not I can establish that a crime was committed by the officers, and in this case, I cannot.”
The DA’s report gave this account of the incident:
Police had been called to a report of a suicidal person shortly before 5 p.m. at a home in Haysville. They spoke to Osterhout’s girlfriend, who told officers she was worried after he sent concerning text messages. She told officers that he carried a gun.
Haysville police spotted Osterhout’s truck sitting in the parking lot of the liquor store at 5:31 p.m. One officer approached the passenger of the truck and spoke to him. Two other officers approached the driver side, but Osterhout refused to roll down the window and talk to them.
The officer on the passenger side asked him if he had a gun and if he was planning on hurting himself. Osterhout said no. He denied he had been drinking; an officer said he appeared intoxicated.
Minutes later an officer noticed a gun on Osterhout’s thighs and alerted the other officers. The officer retreated and asked for backup through emergency radio traffic.
Officers repeatedly told Osterhout to surrender his weapon and get out of the truck. At some point he grabbed the gun and held its barrel to his head.
A fourth Haysville officer arrived and approached the rear of the truck. Officers continued talking to Osterhout until he pointed the gun at one of them.
“He made a deliberate swing of his arm and pointed the gun directly at one of the officers on the passenger side of the vehicle,” Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter previously said.
Two officers fired at Osterhout when they saw him point his gun. The officers fired a total of 22 rounds, 11 each.
At 5:42 p.m., the officers radioed that shots had been fired and that EMS was needed. Officers took Osterhout out of the truck and started CPR. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:49 p.m.
His autopsy showed he had been shot in his head, neck, arm and shoulder.