Update provided on fatal, officer-involved shooting just outside of Wichita

Wichita police on Friday offered an update on Monday’s fatal, officer-involved shooting between an armed man and Sedgwick County deputies.

Officers found 32-year-old Trey J. Houlden of Wichita shirtless and in the road on 55th near Hoover, which is just southwest of Wichita’s city limits.

He approached officers, leading one to shoot him once with a bean bag round, Wichita police chief Joe Sullivan said, before Houlden shot the vehicles deputies were behind and four of them returned fire, hitting him

The Wichita Police Department is investigating the shooting as part of an agreement the agencies have to investigate each other’s critical incidents.

Officers were first called at 5:31 a.m. by a man driving to work.

“There’s a guy on 55th and Hoover with no shirt on, walking around in the middle of the road with a 9 millimeter in his hands,” according to the 911 call WPD showed during a news conference.

Sullivan said it was 27 degrees outside when the call started.

Four people called 911, reporting a man was waiving the gun in the air and pointing it at a vehicle.

The first deputy arriving in the area around 5:45 a.m. and was waived down by a motorist about the armed suspect.

Houlden, who lived in the area, had abandoned his Dodge Ram truck on 55th just west of Hoover and then started walking east, crossing Hoover, Sullivan said.

One deputy gave the Houlden 11 commands to drop the gun, Sullivan said. Police showed the body cam footage of the encounter. After one of the commands, Houlden said “or what” and then, after another command, said: “I didn’t do (expletive).“

Houlden then started to walk west, toward Hoover.

“He started yelling at us because we are following him. He hasn’t made any overt movements with the firearm or anything yet,” a deputy says over the radio in the body cam footage showed.

Houlden then came near the law enforcement vehicle.

An officer can be heard offering Houlden a ride home.

Shots fired

Sullivan said “there are businesses on 55th Street west of Hoover Road, and that is why the decision was made to try and disarm him using a less lethal round.”

The bean bag round was fired at 6:09 a.m. and hit Houlden in the left upper leg, Sullivan said.

A deputy can be heard saying “do it” and then the bean bag round is fired. Officers can also be heard during that time telling Houlden to drop the gun.

“He’s hit with the bean bag, momentarily disables him, and then he comes back erect,” Sullivan said. “He has both hands on the gun. He points it, and then he fires it.”

Deputies returned fire, hitting Houlden. They provided first aid, including “chest seals and tourniquets,” before Houlden was taken to a hospital, where he died, Sullivan said.

Police showed a picture showing a law enforcement vehicle hit in the front left bumper.

“It’s a terribly unfortunate situation for everyone involved,” Sullivan said.

Houlden was released from prison in September 2025, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. He has four convictions in Kansas, all in Sedgwick County, two from a 2015 incident, and one each from two incidents in 2022. The convictions are for aggravated battery, aggravated assault, aggravated domestic battery and aggravated intimidation of a witness or victim, KDOC records show.