Title: Man dies after being shot by Wichita officer investigating possible homicide (Prank 911 Call) Source:
The Wichita Eagle URL Source:http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article192081124.html Published:Dec 30, 2017 Author:Nichole Manna Post Date:2017-12-30 18:24:57 by Hondo68 Keywords:None Views:2145 Comments:32
A 28-year-old man is dead after being shot by a Wichita police officer who was investigating a call of a possible homicide and hostage situation at the corner of Seneca and McCormick on Thursday night.
Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said police received a called of a shooting at around 6:15 p.m.
“It was a shooting call involving hostages,” he said. “The original call, we were told someone had an argument with their mother and dad was accidentally shot. And now that person was holding mother, brother and sister hostage. We learned through that call that a father was deceased, and had been shot in the head. That was the information we were working off of.”
Officers went to the 1000 block of McCormick, preparing for a hostage situation, he said.
“A male came to the front door, as he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon,” Livingston said.
Livingston didn’t say if the man was carrying a weapon when he came to the door, or what caused the officer to shoot the man. Police don’t think he fired at officers, but the incident is still under investigation, he said.
The injured man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The officer, a 7-year veteran of the police department, will be placed on paid administrative leave, per department policy.
When officers got inside the house, they didn’t find anyone with gunshot wounds, Livingston said.
“We have a lot of information to go through,” Livingston said. Investigators are still at the scene and several officers will be interviewed.
At least four people who were inside the home were taken out without injury and are being interviewed.
“We were given some misinformation on the (original) call,” he said. “We got a call that someone was deceased in the residence and that proved not to be true. Also, we’re still trying to determine who was the hostages and how that unfolded as well.”
Reports that two possible shooting victims were in critical condition also proved untrue.
Asked if the original call was meant to be a prank, Livingston said that is something police will look into.
Police expect to release more information Friday afternoon.
Poster Comment:
It was over a $1.50 online gaming bet. One online jerk gave the other a fake home address, and the police went there in response to the bogus 911 call.
I could see and vote for a manslaughter charge on the prankster. Making these kinds of calls falsely should certainly qualify as 3rd degree murder when someone gets killed.
On a different note, this may be a good case where innocent and surprised civilians are finally recognized to be entitled to be reasonably surprised by a police encounter and should not be shot for failure to recover from that surprise quickly enough. I for one am really tired of this "reaching for waistband" crap when the waistband is, after all, the natural place for ones hands to be in most situations.
