Officers burst into sleeping family’s house after drive-by shooting

Five people, including three children, were awakened by the commotion of police forcing their way into their house after a drive-by shooting Tuesday night, authorities said.

Officers responding to a report of shots fired at about 11:20 p.m. found several shell casings in the road in the 600 block of South Ida, Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza said. That’s just southeast of Kellogg and Washington.

The shell casings prompted officers to begin interviewing residents in the neighborhood, Espinoza said. They discovered a house had been hit by multiple shots. When they knocked on the door to talk to residents of the house, no one responded.

Concerned about the welfare of the people who lived in that house, the officers “forced entry into the home,” Espinoza said.

Inside, they discovered two adults and three children who had slept through the shooting and didn’t realize the house had been struck by bullets, he said. The people inside the house included a 30-year-old woman, a 24-year-old man and children ages 7, 9 and 12.

The 24-year-old man “admitted there was some gang activity in his life,” Espinoza said.

He may have been who the shooter or shooters were targeting, Espinoza said. Neighbors reported hearing an engine being revved and tires squealing at about the time shots were fired.

“It appeared the vehicle stopped in front of this residence” and shots were fired from within the vehicle, Espinoza said.

The decision by officers to force their way into a house isn’t taken lightly, he said.

“We don’t just do that for anything,” Espinoza said, acknowledging the experience of police bursting into a house can be startling to unsuspecting residents.

“We’re announcing ourselves, who we are, numerous times,’ he said. “We don’t whisper.”

No description of suspects or the vehicle used in the drive-by was available. No injuries were reported.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Officers burst into sleeping family’s house after drive-by shooting."