by Mary Rupert
A suspect has died after making a threat, shooting at officers and being shot by police in the Village West area.
According to a spokesman for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, it was an officer-involved shooting near State Avenue and Village West Parkway.
Police stated the officers were dispatched around 9:42 a.m. on Tuesday to a hotel near 110th and State.
At 9:54 a.m., officers found the suspect at State Avenue and Village West Parkway, and tried to make contact with him, the spokesman stated. The suspect pointed a gun and fired several shots at officers around 10:05 a.m., according to the police statement.
Officers returned fire and fatally wounded the suspect, the police spokesman stated.
The man had gone to the Country Inn Suites, 1805 N. 110th St., Kansas City, Kansas, and told the manager that he had killed his wife, according to the manager of the hotel.
“He said he was heavily armed and dangerous, and headed to the Legends mall,” Jacob Honeycutt, manager of Country Inn and Suites, said.
Later, the man drove away and the officer-involved shooting happened near State Avenue and Village West Parkway.
Honeycutt did not see any weapons on the man at the time he went inside the hotel. The man was described as 5-8, bald, 40 to 45 years old, of medium build, he said. He was driving a red Maserati.
Honeycutt said he and other people at the hotel did not know the man. He called the police, who arrived within 5 to 7 minutes, he said.
Reports are currently that police have gone to a location in another county to investigate a possible shooting there that might be related to this case.
Honeycutt said he did not lock down the hotel, as he did not feel there was any immediate threat to it after the man left. The Legends Outlets mall did lock down, however, he added. Streets around the shooting scene were blocked off by police.
To his knowledge, nothing like this had ever happened at the Country Inn and Suites on 110th before, Honeycutt added.
Cyndee Haviland, from Lansing, Michigan, who was in town visiting friends and staying at the Country Inn Suites, said she was standing outside the hotel when a man went inside, then ran out, jumped in a red sports car and peeled out, going fast.
Haviland left shortly afterward and said she saw police standing outside in the street with their guns drawn.
The man in the red sports car was standing outside his car and had something in his hand, she said. “What, I don’t know,” she added.
She said she kept going in her car until she was out of that area.
The Kansas City, Kansas, and Topeka police departments are investigating. The public may call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS if they have information about the case.
