A 38-year-old man accused of killing a Wyandotte County sheriff’s deputy faces the possibility of the death penalty after he was charged with capital murder Tuesday.
Shawn Harris, who lived in Kansas City, Kansas, was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon by a felon.
Harris is accused of the fatal shooting of Elijah Ming, 34, a sheriff’s deputy, during a domestic violence call on Saturday. A woman called police after she said Harris threatened her with a gun as she was trying to move out of a house in the 2600 block of South 30th Street, police said.
The death comes amid a spate of domestic violence, which Kansas City and Jackson County officials called “alarming” in April. In Kansas City, Missouri, there have been 16 homicides attributed to domestic violence this year, out of a total of 96. Last year, there were 12. In Kansas City, Kansas, there have been 445 cases of domestic battery so far this year, compared to a total of 552 last year.
“This is another example of the far-reaching effects of domestic violence, and it is an issue in this community, it is an issue across the country,” said Karl Oakman, chief of the Kansas City, Kansas, police. “Unfortunately, in this situation, Deputy Ming was in the middle of that, which law enforcement officers are on a daily basis.”
If convicted, Harris, who has a criminal record in both Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, faces life in prison or the death penalty on the capital murder charge, Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said. If convicted on the other count, he could be sentenced to prison from seven to 23 months, Dupree said.
Dupree warned the public, and especially victims, to take early signs of domestic violence seriously.
“If he or she — but the majority of the time it is he — is controlling, is combative, doesn’t allow you to go places, removes you from the ones that love you, take the signs serious and get out before it’s too late,” he said.
The shooting is being investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
Ming, who worked for the sheriff's department for eight years, was married and has family in the Kansas City area.
“We lost an amazing deputy, an amazing person,” Sheriff Daniel Soptic said. “This community was robbed, this family was robbed, of their time with Deputy Ming.”
