Wichita police officer won’t be prosecuted in fatal McDonald’s encounter, DA says

A Wichita officer involved in a McDonald’s parking lot fatal shooting will not be prosecuted, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Friday.

“Under the totality of the circumstances, I don’t have enough evidence to establish that the officer was not acting in self-defense,” Bennett said about the July 31, 2024, incident at 545 N. Hillside.

Brennan Russell, 29, who was in the back seat of a vehicle, pointed a gun at an officer and then shot himself in the head just before the officer opened fire, according to Bennett.

The officer fired “a fraction of a second” after Russell shot himself, a coroner said in the autopsy, adding that the self-inflicted gunshot would have been fatal, but the shots fired by the officer “likely accelerated death.”

Drugs, pills, baggies, scales and a Kimber Micro 9 pistol were found inside the vehicle, Bennett said.

Russell had fentanyl and other drugs in his system, according to an autopsy. The driver told police Russell had taken pills that night and was acting “crazy,” according to Bennett’s 13-page report.

Bennett reviewed the autopsy, body camera footage from two officers, including the one who fired the five shots, and statements from people in the vehicle and a bystander.

The two officers were riding together and stopped the Chevrolet Impala with expired tags after seeing it leave a known drug house they were surveilling in the 500 block of North Volutsia.

The traffic stop happened at 11:18 p.m. The shooting happened at 11:21 p.m.

Russell was moving around in the back seat when officers approached the vehicle, according to statements the two officers made that are in Bennett’s report.

The officer who shot Russell, who graduated from the academy in 2018, opened the backseat passenger door and saw drugs at Russell’s feet, the officer reported.

At gunpoint, he ordered Russell out of the car, but Russell did not listen, the report says.

The officer holstered his gun and told Russell he was under arrest.

He then “reached for Mr. Russell’s arm and Mr. Russell resisted and pulled back further into the back seat,” the report says. The officer “withdrew his taser and deployed the taser twice. (The officer) could discern no effect on Mr. Russell.”

Russell then reached for his waistband and pulled out a gun, according to Bennett. Authorities previously released video showing the gun pointing toward the officer, who still had out his Taser.

The officer yelled “gun, gun, gun,” and pulled out his gun and fired five times, the report says. Russell shot himself just before the officer opened fire, the report says.