DA: No charges against deputy in west Wichita fatal shooting
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — District Attorney Marc Bennett says he has finished his investigation of a fatal officer-involved shooting from 2022, and he will not file charges in the case.
The shooting and killing of Gregorio Banuelos was on May 25, 2022. Bennett said his report was delayed because the final ballistics report did not come in until last month.
The DA says his report is limited to whether there is criminal liability in the shooting of Banuelos. He said his office does not have authority regarding use-of-force investigations.
Initial call and police response
The standoff began around 1:30 a.m. on May 25, 2022, in the 500 block of N. Milstead. A woman called 911 to say she had been shot by a family member in her home. A teenage boy in the home also called 911 and reported a shot had been fired. The boy described the man as extremely intoxicated. He also said the man had talked about killing officers and himself.
The WPD said that they found the woman outside the home when they arrived at the scene. The woman told officers that a man in the house had fired a weapon at her. She initially thought she had been shot, but she was not. She said three other family members were still in the home with Banuelos.
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She told officers that Banuelos was a relative and that he arrived intoxicated with a girlfriend earlier that night. Police say Banuelos did not live at the house. The woman who called 911 told officers that she asked the visiting woman to leave, and she did.
The woman who called 911 said that after the girlfriend left, Banuelos got angry and got a gun.
She said he began arguing with her and then physically assaulted her, injuring her slightly. She said he followed her around the house with a gun and then fired a shot at her. She thought she had been hit.
Police tried to talk to Banuelos on the woman’s phone, but he hung up.
At 1:51 a.m., the other three people in the home came out, but not Banuelos.
Officers say they saw Banuelos walk out of the home with a gun, make comments and then walk back into the house. At 2:02 a.m., the WPD decided to activate SWAT.
Negotiators arrived by 3:14 a.m.
Negotiations and shooting
According to the district attorney’s investigation, police tried to end the standoff peacefully and de-escalate the situation.
A robot located Banuelos in bed in a basement room. At 8:41 a.m., SWAT members went into the basement with a K9. Officers saw Banuelos hold a gun to his head and say he would kill himself and the K9.
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The SWAT team backed out. At 9:01 a.m., they saw Banuelos manipulating the police robot. Then, they lost visual contact with him.
As the hours passed, police heard more gunshots. The SWAT members returned to the basement at 12:12 p.m. They saw Banuelos opening and closing the bedroom door.
At 12:26 p.m., they said he opened the door and raised his hand. An officer fired at Banuelos, but there was no indication he was hit.
The SWAT team retreated to the ground floor of the home. They heard more shots and went outside.
At 12:44 p.m., the DA says Banuelos entered the attached garage, walked around a parked car and approached the open garage door.
A police officer thought he saw something in Banuelos’ hand and fired once from a rifle. The DA says ballistics evidence indicates the shot did not hit Banuelos.
At a different angle, a deputy saw Banuelos approaching SWAT team members. The DA says the deputy could not see Banuelos’ hands but believed he posed a risk to the officers. The deputy fired his rifle once. Bennett said, from the ballistics analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that the deputy’s shot was the fatal shot.
District attorney’s conclusion
District Attorney Bennett says that under Kansas law, a person may employ deadly force when the person reasonably believes that deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent risk of great bodily harm to himself or another.
Bennett also said that under the Kansas “stand your ground” law, one who acts in defense of himself or to protect a third party is immune from prosecution.
The DA says the investigation established that Banuelos assaulted a family member, fired the weapon so near the family member that she thought she had been shot, refused to turn himself in, and fired his weapon a total of six more times in the house.
Officers told investigators that they heard Banuelos say words to the effect that he was down to two bullets and wanted to “get” officers.
Bennett said Banuelos had a 9 mm handgun and moved at an accelerated pace through the garage just before the two law enforcement officers shot at him.
“That the two officers made the same decision to shoot in the same moment without coordination or communication with one another in the moment, speaks to the reasonableness of their individual assessments and the reasonableness of the determination that a lethal risk was posed by Mr. Banuelos,” Bennett said in his final report.
He said the officer and deputy are immune from prosecution under Kansas law.
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