Kansas City, Kan., Police Officer Shot, Killed

Capt. Robert Melton was shot multiple times Tuesday afternoon while searching for a drive-by shooting suspect, and died at a hospital shortly after. The alleged shooter was caught five minutes later nearby.

A spokesman for the police department said it wasn’t clear whether the officers on the scene were ambushed.

Tomasic says he has been told a fourth person that police thought was a suspect might not have been involved.

Ms Ford said she looked through her window and saw the officer sprawled and unresponsive on the road in front of her home.

The department had just on Monday instituted new minimum staffing rules so officers would not go out alone, Zeigler said.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback released the following statement Tuesday evening.

Under a row of flags flying at half staff, there was a prayer, some music and words of condolence for Melton’s family from Chief Terry Ziegler. “Kansans everywhere mourn his loss, grieve with his family, and pray for his fellow brothers and sisters in blue”.

Melton was shot several times and died at a hospital just before 3 p.m., Zeigler said.

The suspect vehicle drove off as police arrived, but it crashed into a fence and the occupants fled at 1.36pm.

The news station reports that two suspects have been arrested in the shooting, but that police are looking for a third, and possibly a fourth, suspect.

But while the shooting did not appear to be connected to the tense atmosphere nationwide, the city’s police chief – who has now seen two officers killed in a matter of months – said he was concerned about the consequences of protests against how police use force.

While officials said the shooting was not planned, Mayor Holland cautioned against taking a “path of fear and conclusions and hatred”.

Kansas City, Kan., police officer Brad Lightfoot, right, walks Susan Goble to the shooting scene of a police officer in Kansas City, Kan., Tuesday, July 19, 2016.

This undated photo provided by the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department show police Captain Robert Melton.

Melton, 46, a veteran of the Kansas Army National Guard who served in Afghanistan, was shot about 2 p.m. near an intersection where the chase ended, noted the Star.