A Kansas City, Kansas, man pleaded guilty Tuesday to capital murder in the 2025 killing of a deputy with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, according to court records.
Shawn Harris, 39, initially pleaded not guilty in the killing of Elijah Ming during a shootout last July in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.
As part of Harris’ new guilty plea, prosecutors with the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop charges against Harris relating to the criminal possession of a firearm, and will seek a life imprisonment sentence with no chance for parole. Authorities initially said last year that they would seek the death penalty if Harris were convicted of capital murder.
The shooting took place as law enforcement was providing protection for a woman moving out of a house, according to police. The woman said Harris was threatening her with a gun.
According to police, Harris, who was inside the house at the time, confronted Ming, which led to the shootout. Officers with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department and the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office fired their guns, law enforcement said at the time.
34-year-old Elijah Ming, who had worked for the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office for eight years, was shot and died from his injuries at a local hospital.
After barricading himself inside the home, Harris eventually surrendered and was taken to a hospital. Upon his release, authorities arrested Harris and charged him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
“We lost an amazing deputy, an amazing person,” Sheriff Daniel Soptic said of the incident in July 2025. “This community was robbed, this family was robbed of their time with Deputy Ming.”
Law enforcement officers said Ming’s death was another example of the “far-reaching impacts” of domestic violence.
“Unfortunately, in this situation, Deputy Ming was in the middle of that, which law enforcement officers are on a daily basis,” said Police Chief Karl Oakman.
Harris’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 18 at 10 A.M.
