Updated: Sunday, Dec. 14
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office identified the man shot and killed by deputies in an incident at the Panasonic EV battery plant as Jonathan Lunceford, 55, of Blue Springs, Missouri.
In a statement Saturday, the sheriff’s office said the case remains under investigation by the Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigations Team.
Original story continues below:
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says one person is dead and another critically injured following an incident at the Panasonic EV battery plant in De Soto that ended with a deputy fatally shooting a stabbing suspect.
In a statement Friday, Sheriff Byron Roberson said deputies were called to the plant, 10301 Astra Pkwy., in response to a report of a stabbing just before 11 a.m.
When deputies arrived, they found one victim suffering from multiple stab wounds, Roberson said.
“The deputies located the suspect, and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” Roberson said in his statement.
Deputies “performed life-saving efforts on the suspect,” Roberson said, but Med-Act paramedics pronounced the suspect dead at 11:25 a.m.
County officer-involved incident team is investigating
Roberson spoke to the assembled media at the entrance to Clearview City, now Clearview Village Apartments, near the former Post Office building at 103rd Street and Astra Parkway, across the street from Panasonic.
During the media briefing, Roberson said investigators did not yet have information about whether or not the two people involved were Panasonic employees or what started the incident.
Roberson also said he couldn’t yet say if the suspect who was shot and killed was armed but indicated the stabbing victim was a man.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigations Team has taken over the investigation, Roberson said, with Olathe Police as the lead agency.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is also assisting with the investigation.
Roberson said there was no ongoing threat to the community.
“De Soto is safe, and there is no need for a heightened awareness of this incident,” he said during the media briefing.
De Soto Mayor Rick Walker released a statement Friday, as well.
“We’re saddened to learn about the incident at the Panasonic facility,” he said. “While details are still limited and the investigation is ongoing, the situation is deeply unsettling, and our condolences go out to the employees, their families, and everyone affected.”
Employees evacuated, initially alerted to “active shooter”
During the incident, employees at the battery plant were evacuated.
According to messages shared with the Post by a Panasonic employee who wished to remain anonymous, employees on Friday morning received a text alert about an “active shooter.”
The alert read, “Run away if safe, hide if you can’t run, silence phones, fight aggressively if your life is in imminent danger. Stay away from the pivot trailers.”
The pivot trailers are construction trailers on the western side of the Panasonic campus, parts of which are still being built.
A Panasonic spokesperson later confirmed that the incident did not involve an active shooter and that the company was “working closely with the appropriate authorities.”
“We have no additional details to share at this time,” the spokesperson said.
Panasonic employees later received an “All Clear” message at around 11:30 a.m. that read in part, “There was an incident on-site in Wing 2 in the De Soto, Kansas, factory involving law enforcement. It was not an active shooter incident. You may return to your work area, but due to an ongoing investigation, Wing 2 construction area remains closed.”
Wing 2 is an area of the Panasonic plant that is still under construction and not currently used in battery making.
Roughly 1,200 employees currently work at the plant on electric vehicle battery production. The plant opened in July, roughly three years after first breaking ground on a portion of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in western Johnson County.
A company spokesperson told a Post reporter on the scene that an unknown number of construction workers were also at the site Friday, working on a second wing to the plant.
Post freelance reporter Mike Frizzell and reporter Kate Mays contributed to this report.
