Three police officers and three suspects injured in shooting in Kansas City, Kansas
Three Kansas City, Kansas, police officers and three suspects were injured in a shooting Wednesday afternoon during an attempted arrest related to a drug investigation, according to police.
About 3 p.m., the shooting broke out after police tried to arrest suspects in an undercover investigation of fentanyl dealing, police said. All six were taken to the hospital with injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening.
Police say the shooting happened around 3 p.m. near 18th Street and Wood Avenue.
It appeared to have unfolded in the parking lot of Fast Fred’s Market, a small restaurant and convenience store, where spent shell casings littered the ground. Two vehicles were butted up against one another, both of which had apparent bullet damage.
Gia Bleu was on FaceTime with a friend at the house across the street when she heard brakes and a crash. That was followed by multiple shots being fired, including what sounded like a machine gun.
“I got down on the floor,” she said. “It was very loud, it sounded like Grand Theft Auto, like the video game.”
After the shooting stopped, she looked outside and saw officers running with shields.
“It was very dramatic,” Bleu said
One neighbor who lives about a block from the market was standing by his driveway talking to a friend when he heard what sounded like “100 gunshots.”
“It sounded like Iraq or something,” he said. “Man, what’s going on?”
Occasional gunfire isn’t uncommon in the area, said the man, who asked not to be named. But the volley of bullets alarmed him, prompting him to take cover behind his friend’s vehicle.
Later, he saw what appeared to be two men, walking handcuffed with police escorts near the convenience store. One was covered in blood, he said.
Meanwhile, another man was standing near the police tape a block away from the store was texting his child, waiting for more information. His son, a freshman at Wyandotte High School, was inside Fast Fred’s when the shots began, he said.
The man, who asked that his name not be used to protect his son’s identity, said his son, 14, often goes to the nearby park or the store to grab snacks after school with his friends.
On Wednesday, he said, his son went with a friend his age to buy soda and chips after playing at the park down the street, a common hangout spot for kids his age. He was reunited with his son and two other teenagers his age by evening.
“I’m glad he’s OK, but it’s not just a comfortable position for a kid,” he said.
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Karl Oakman said the officers injured Wednesday were part of a tactical team called in to arrest the suspects. Undercover officers had purchased fentanyl from the same suspected source and were attempting another undercover buy on Wednesday afternoon, he said.
Oakman described an earlier afternoon promotion ceremony in contrast with the news of the three officers shot roughly an hour later, saying “sometimes you just don’t realize the ups and downs of policing.”
“As a leader of an organization, that’s the one thing that keeps me up at night. How I’m putting young men and women at risk every night to protect the citizens of Kansas City, Kansas. That’s one of the things that really keeps you up at night.”
The Kansas City Police Department is investigating the use of force as part of an agreement struck last year between the two agencies.
Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman for KCPD, said investigators would be reviewing any available video footage and conducting witness interviews as part of the investigation. She said those findings would be forwarded to the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office.
In a news conference shortly after 5 p.m., Dr. Sean Kumer, associate chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said the officers were able to converse.
KU Police Chief Brad Deichler said it was “an emotional time.”
The shooting in Kansas City, Kansas comes roughly one month after a three tactical police officers were shot on the other side of the state line during a separate narcotics trafficking investigation involving fentanyl.
On Feb. 28, three Kansas City police officers were executing a search warrant on behalf of a county drug task force when they were struck by gunfire at the front door of a residence. Officers returned fire, retreated and were treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds.
An hourslong standoff followed the shooting Two people who were in the home face drug charges, including fentanyl distribution, and a third was found dead of what authorities determined was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police officers were all cleared to be released from the hospital few days later.
The Star’s Nick Wagner contributed to this story.
