Robert Melton, 46, was one of the responding officers to a call Tuesday afternoon about a drive-by shooting.
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Before becoming captain, Melton held the rank of sergeant.
“We ask everyone to be just prayerful”, Holland said.
Police Chief Terry Zeigler said details of Melton’s shooting would be made public at a news conference Wednesday morning. A second suspect was taken into custody later, and police officers continue investigating at the Haskell Avenue neighborhood to get more information about the case.
A surgeon in the Kansas City, Kansas, area says that the officer who was shot multiple times by suspects in an earlier shooting has died. Police weren’t releasing the suspects’ names because charges hadn’t been filed. Officers chased a auto believed to be involved and when Capt. Robert Melton arrived, suspects shot and killed him, Zeigler said. When officers, including Melton, arrived at the scene, they saw three or four suspects jump from a vehicle and flee. The caller told police that “several people in a auto were firing shots at them”.
The shooting occurred around a residential intersection about two and a half miles from the police department’s headquarters, Zeigler said.
Tuesday marked the second time this year that a Kansas City, Kan., police officer had been shot in the line of duty.
It is also understood he was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time, KSHB Action News reported.
Several suspects are not reported in custody.
Kamryn Gardner and Dylan Gardner said their Blue Lives Matter stand honors the officers in Kansas City, Dallas and Baton Rouge who have died from gunfire this month. Police are believed to have arrested two suspects and are looking for another.
The region is also reeling after the revelation that Gavin Long, the suspected shooter in Sunday’s deadly ambush of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was from neighboring Kansas City, Missouri.
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Lancaster, a nine-year veteran of the Kansas City department, was the first death for that city’s police force since 1998, according to the Star. A different officer was shot at 1:57 p.m. when he tried to make contact with another suspect.
