KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A second sheriff’s deputy died early Saturday from injuries suffered when an inmate who was being transported in Kansas City overpowered two officers and may have used one of their guns to shoot them.
Kansas City, Kansas, police confirmed on their Facebook page that Deputy Theresa King, 44, died just after midnight following the shooting on Friday. Officer Patrick Rohrer, 35, died earlier.
The inmate was also shot during the confrontation in a gated area near the Wyandotte County Courthouse and was taken to a hospital. His condition was not known. Investigators said the inmate may have grabbed a weapon from one of the deputies during a struggle after he got out of a van late Friday morning.
“It is very possible that with their own firearm, they were both shot,” Wyandotte County sheriff’s Maj. Kelli Bailiff said during a news conference Friday at the University of Kansas Hospital.
Rohrer had been with the department for seven years and King for 13 years.
Bailiff said the inmate was being taken across the street from the jail, to the services building, for a court hearing. The inmate was taken in a van to a gated area behind the building, and when he got out of the van, he somehow overpowered and shot the deputies, Bailiff said.