A man suspected in a murder shot three police officers in Kansas City, Missouri, during a confrontation that began at a motel Sunday afternoon and ended with him being shot dead during a gunfight at a nearby home he had briefly barricaded himself in, authorities said.
The shooting erupted just after noon at the Sky-Vu Motel on Highway 40 on the east side of the city as undercover and tactical officers were conducting an investigation into the robbery and killing at a market last week of a 25-year-old University of Missouri, Kansas City student, police said.
“They [police] encountered a suspect who fired on officers with a rifle,” police said in the tweets.
Two officers were shot in the initial confrontation at the motel, police said.
The suspected gunman fled the scene in a vehicle with a second individual, police said. Officers tracked the vehicle to a residential neighborhood near the intersection of 30th Street and Topping Avenue and arrested one of the men who had fled the motel, police said.
The man suspected in the shooting ran to a nearby house, where he allegedly shot a third officer, police said.
Police said the gunman barricaded himself in the house, but about 1:15 p.m. he bolted out of the residence with his gun blazing.
“The armed suspect exited a residence and once again exchanged gunfire with officers. He was shot and taken into custody,” police said in a tweet.
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was declared dead at the scene by the Kansas City Fire Department.
The three wounded police officers were taken to a hospital. One was in stable condition, but the conditions of the other two were not immediately made public.
The shooting unfolded after police went to the Sky-Vu Motel as part of their investigation of the July 6 robbery and slaying of Sarath Kopuu, a student at the UMKC who is from India, police said. Kopuu was killed during the robbery at the J’s Fish and Chicken Market in Kansas City.
A $10,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the arrest of Kopuu’s killer.
