Officers from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and the Maize and Park City police departments fired their guns and also used less-lethal bean bag rounds during a weekend fatal encounter with a 27-year-old man in a rural area just outside of Wichita after he called 911 and said he would shoot someone if they didn’t hurry, Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said Tuesday.
Information presented by the Wichita Police Department, which wasn’t involved in the incident but is investigating it, included a recording of the 911 call and video of the events leading to the shooting.
Jonathan Macias of Sedgwick County died at the scene.
Macias, who was wearing a ballistic vest, got out of his vehicle and ran toward officers roughly an hour into their response Saturday morning before turning sideways and reaching his right hand behind his back, according to Sullivan and the video.
An officer can be heard yelling “don’t reach” before the video ended and Sullivan said shots were fired by officers. Sullivan said officers also told Macias to put his hands up.
The video showed an officer pointing a rifle at Macias while getting some cover behind a bush. Macias was in front of a fence between two houses.
At some point into the hour-long incident, a deputy reported over the radio that Macias had a handgun, but none was recovered, Sullivan said.
The incident started when Macias called 911 at 7:06 a.m. from the 6900 block of Childs Street, which is just northwest of where Wichita city limits end.
“I’m gonna shoot someone,” according to the 911 recording released during the news conference.
The dispatcher asked for his name.
“I’m John Doe, all right,” he said. “Let’s just keep it that way.”
The dispatcher asked what is going on that he wanted to shoot someone.
“You better hurry up, before I do it,” he replied.
A Maize police officer arrived first, at 7:12 a.m., and was “passed by a vehicle multiple times,” according to a slide during the news conference.
Officers arrived to Macias driving his car around the neighborhood and getting in and out of the vehicle and revving his engine while ignoring officer commands, Sullivan said.
Officers deflated the tires with a device but Macias kept driving the car around the dirt roads on the few streets near where the call started. Sullivan said he drove “t hrough front yards, fences and around trees and around law enforcement vehicles.”
Officers moved in closer out of concern for Macias’ family members at a home nearby, Sullivan said. Macias drove through front yards around the officers, driving to the west of them before exiting and heading east toward officers, Sullivan said.
That’s when the shooting happened. Officers fired the shots at 8:13 a.m.
Life-saving measures were tried but Macias died at the scene.
Sullivan didn’t know if Macias lived at that home currently but at “ some point he did.” Officers also later learned that the vest Macias wore didn’t have any ballistic panels inside of it, but they didn’t know that during the encounter, Sullivan said.
Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford said the WPD would not release any additional details outside of what was said at the news conference.
Wichita police identify man killed in weekend officer-involved shooting
Man, who was wearing body armor, charges officers before being fatally shot, police say
Local News
