New sheriff’s vehicle hit by gunfire today

A new sheriff’s deputy vehicle had only been on the road for a day or two when its window was shot out, according to Wyandotte County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lt. Kelli Bailiff.

She said the new Dodge Charger, a marked white sheriff’s vehicle with blue lettering, was parked in the driveway of a deputy this morning when the damage was discovered. No one was in the car at the time of the shooting.

The shooting happened between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. today in the 2500 block of North 57th St., sheriff’s officers believe. The sheriff’s vehicle was one of the vehicles that officers may drive home. Dispatchers received a call about shots fired in the area, she said.

The deputy had worked the night shift and had been at home for a few hours when the damage was discovered, she said.

“Our deputy walked out and made contact with the officers and realized someone had fired five to six shots into the window of his new vehicle,” Lt. Bailiff said. “He just got it yesterday or the day before, brand new to the department.

“That part stings a little bit, because we’re short on vehicles anyway,” she said.

But the car is salvageable, she added. There is some damage to the window and some internal damage that is being assessed, possible damage to the dashboard, she added. She doesn’t think the police radio or the police cameras have been damaged.

The case is just being treated as a criminal damage case at this point, like any other damage to a vehicle, she said. Criminal damage to sheriff’s vehicles has happened occasionally in the past, she added.

Lt. Bailiff asked anyone with information about it to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

Officers are more diligent and more vigilant of their surroundings every day, Lt. Bailiff said. They’re not riding in pairs in the Sheriff’s Department, as the police officers here are, because of staffing reasons.