Updated: 9 p.m., Nov. 2
Officials say the man involved in an overnight standoff in Lenexa killed his wife and son.
In a news release on Saturday afternoon, Master Police Officer Danny Chavez identified the suspect as 53-year-old Todd Donovan.
The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office announced that Donovan has been charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife, Sheila Donovan, 52, and his son, Tyler Donovan, 22.
The elder Donovan has also been charged with cruelty to animals for allegedly shooting and killing his neighbor’s dog.
County property records show Todd and Sheila Donovan own the house in the 7900 block of Hallet Street in Lenexa, where the standoff occurred.
An update on Donovan’s hospitalization status has not been provided.
By Saturday afternoon, Hallet Street had reopened, and neighbors were tending to their yards as crime scene tape surrounded two homes on the street.
The Johnson County Crime Lab investigators worked most of Saturday to process the scene and collect evidence.
Todd Donovan is held in custody on a $2,000,000 bond.
The case remains under investigation by the Lenexa Police Department and Johnson County Crime Lab.
Original story continues below:
Lenexa Police say two people are dead and a man is in custody following a five-and-a-half-hour standoff overnight.
According to a police statement Saturday morning, officers were called to a house in the 7900 block of Hallet Street at 8:24 p.m. Friday for an armed disturbance.
“As officers arrived, they heard multiple gunshots coming from the area of the residence,” Master Police Officer Danny Chavez, a Lenexa Police spokesperson, said in the statement.
Chavez said officers spoke on the phone with the man suspected of firing the shots and learned he was inside his residence on Hallet Street.
The man “refused to comply with officer’s requests to come outside peacefully and the Lenexa Tactical Team and crisis negotiators responded on the barricade operation,” Chavez said.
In a post published on the Lenexa Police Department’s social media accounts just after 10 p.m., police said that they were “negotiating with an armed, barricaded person.”
Our officers are currently surrounding a residence in the 7900 block of Hallet negotiating with an armed, barricaded person who may have previously fired shots in the area. Some nearby residences have been asked to evacuate by our officers. Anyone else is asked to stay inside…
— Lenexa Police (@LenexaPolice) November 2, 2024
After about two hours of negotiating, the man “discontinued dialogue,” according to police.
Police evacuated several surrounding homes during the standoff.
A stretch of 79th Street from Cottonwood to Acuff streets was closed to traffic and lined with emergency vehicles that had responded to the neighborhood.
Lenexa officers were assisted by officers and armored vehicles from Shawnee, Olathe and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
Three Lenco Bearcat armored vehicles and one Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, or MRAP, responded to the call, lighting up the front of the house on Hallet Street.
According to Chavez, a tactical team entered the house shortly before 1:50 a.m. Saturday and found the man unresponsive from a “possible overdose.”
Officers also found two other people dead inside the home, an adult female and adult male. Both individuals appeared to have been shot, Chavez said.
Chavez added that “it was also learned that a neighbor’s dog was shot and killed around the same time that officers responded on the initial call.”
Lenexa Police confirmed on social media site X that they had taken an adult male into custody.
Update 1:50 AM – an adult male suspect has been taken into custody by our tactical team.
— Lenexa Police (@LenexaPolice) November 2, 2024
At 2:13 a.m., a Johnson County Med-Act ambulance, followed closely by a Lenexa Police vehicle, left the neighborhood for a nearby hospital with the man inside.
The man, only identified as being in his early 50s, was said to be in critical condition.
As of 4 a.m. Saturday, County Crime Lab techs could be seen working at the house where the suspect had been. Police still had the road blocked off at that time, too.
