Suspect killed, 3 deputies wounded in Kansas firefight

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — A wanted man was killed and three deputies were wounded Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire in western Kansas, authorities say.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that it started around 9 a.m. when the sheriff’s office in Clark County attempted to stop the suspect. Clark County sits along the state’s border with Oklahoma.

The release said the suspect fled and that deputies pursued him one county to the north. The Ford County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas Highway Patrol joined the pursuit.

The KBI said that gunfire erupted once the vehicle came to a stop in an area of Dodge City that includes a John Deere dealership and a gas station.

In video posted by Wichita television station KAKE, a man can be heard yelling “Get your hands up.” As the shooting begins, an officer dodges behind a truck.

The release said the suspect was fatally shot and that a women in the vehicle was critically wounded. Neither of their names was released.

Two deputies from Ford County and one from Clark County also were wounded. Two of them were rushed to a Wichita hospital with injuries described as serious, while the condition of the third deputy was described as good. A highway patrol trooper was bit by a police dog during the melee but wasn’t hurt badly.

Ford County posted on its website that there was no additional danger to the community. And Clark County Sheriff John Ketron described what happened in an email only as an “active investigation,” directing additional questions to the KBI.

The Dodge City Police Department put out a notice urging people to avoid the area. It said surrounding roads would be closed for several hours.

A man who answered the phone at the John Deere dealership and a woman who answered the phone at the gas station near the scene declined to comment.

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