Officers won’t face charges for this fatal shooting in Wichita, DA says
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Tuesday that no criminal charges will be filed against law enforcement officers who used deadly force on a Wichita man in early 2025.
As part of a 24-page report released Tuesday, Bennett said five Wichita Police Department officers and three Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office officials, one deputy and two sergeants, fired 124 rounds at Devario Ceon Edwards on Jan. 23, 2025, outside the Spirit AeroSystems complex on South Oliver.
The shooting happened just before 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 23. A former Spirit employee, Edwards, 28, was pronounced dead the following day at Wesley Medical Center.
Investigators found that Edwards had fired nearly two-dozen rounds at officers before he was shot at least 12 times, according to the report. Two law enforcement vehicles were struck by bullets from the gun Edwards fired.
No law enforcement officers were struck by gunfire from the weapon Edwards used, which was described in the report as an “AK-47-styled” semi-automatic pistol.
“Under the totality of the circumstances, there is insufficient evidence to establish that the eight officers were not acting in self-defense,” Bennett said in the report. “The officers are immune to prosecution under Kansas law.”
According to law enforcement accounts and past reporting, Edwards was likely in the midst of a mental health episode in the hours and days leading up to the shooting.
In the report, and during a short news conference Tuesday, Bennett said Edwards was involved in six law enforcement cases in the 12 days that led to the shooting, including one where he was accused of breaking down a door at the home of the father of his girlfriend.
The father told investigators that Edwards broke into his home before pointing a gun at him, though the firearm appeared to malfunction when Edwards tried to shoot.
“”The man said the gun jammed and Mr. Edwards ran out the door,” the report states.
Edwards’ employment at Spirit was terminated on Jan. 17, 2025, the report said.
Before driving to the Spirit parking lot where the shooting happened, Edwards went on Facebook Live to broadcast his plans.
“He was live-recording himself and talking about how he was going to get into an armed shootout with law enforcement,” Bennett said Tuesday. “The bottom line is he shot 23 times at cops, who fired back. He lost his life. There’s no mechanism by which I can say that these officers are criminally responsible for taking his life, as regrettable as this circumstance may have been. They were, in Kansas law’s definition, acting in self-defense.”
The names of the officers involved in the fatal shooting were not released.