Two Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies won’t face charges in the fatal shooting of a man who stabbed a person at the Panasonic Energy plant in De Soto in December.

On Friday, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced that his office’s investigation determined the deputies were justified in their actions during the fatal Dec. 12, 2025, shooting of Jonathan Lunceford.

“This vast facility and the hundreds of people that were there were under threat by Mr. Lunceford, and so, therefore, I have made the decision that the officers acted lawfully and under Kansas law, and so no actions will be taken towards either one of these officers,” Howe said at a press conference at the Johnson County Courthouse on Friday. 

On Dec. 12, 2025, deputies were called to the scene at 10301 Astra Parkway in De Soto around 11 a.m., finding one victim with four stab wounds. The deputies located the suspect, later identified as Lunceford, 55, of Blue Springs, Missouri, and fired shots at him shortly thereafter.

Deputies “performed life-saving efforts on the suspect,” Sheriff Byron Roberson said but Johnson County Med-Act paramedics pronounced Lunceford dead at 11:25 a.m.

The shooting was investigated by the Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team.

A closer look at the timeline of the shooting

At 10:58 a.m. on Dec. 12, two Johnson County deputies, who were not named in Howe’s report, separately responded to calls of a stabbing at the Panasonic facility.

At 11:09 a.m., “Deputy A,” a veteran officer with the Sheriff’s Office for at least four years, Howe said, located a victim who had been stabbed and began administering aid. Deputy A also ordered the building to be locked down to make sure no one entered or exited.

After the stabbing victim was stable, Deputy A joined Deputy B, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, in following two construction workers, who led them to where Lunceford was at 11:12 a.m.

Lunceford “appeared calm” when the deputies first made contact with him, according to Howe’s report.

Deputy B ordered Lunceford to drop all of the items he was holding, including a cellphone, water bottle and an object that was later identified as a wrench. After the deputy issued those commands, Lunceford began walking away, with his back turned to the officers.

Deputy B then drew his handgun and ordered Lunceford to stop moving. Lunceford responded by stopping and turning around, looking at the officers, Howe’s report said. Lunceford was then ordered to get on the ground, but he did not comply.

Lunceford was informed by Deputy B that he had a Taser and gun pointed at him and was ordered again to get on the ground.

Still looking at the deputies, Lunceford was hit with a Taser probe by Deputy A. He responded by shouting, turning around and walking away, before falling to the ground.

While neither deputy attempted to handcuff him, they ordered him to put his hands behind his back, which he did not do, according to the District Attorney’s report.

Almost immediately, Lunceford stood back up, turned around and walked toward the deputies. At the same time, Deputy B continued shouting orders and backing away from him.

After some distance was created between Lunceford and the deputies, Lunceford turned around and walked away from the deputies again. Both deputies followed him, with Deputy A ordering him to stop.

The chase continued with Lunceford going through a doorway and the deputies continuously ordering him to stop. They also deployed more Taser probe shots, which had no effect, according to the report.

As Lunceford began jogging toward a doorway in the distance where two other workers were visible, Deputy A announced they were going to fire their guns. They fired two shots at Lunceford’s back and he dropped to the floor immediately, according to the report.

“A thousand-yard stare”

The reason for the stabbing that initiated the 911 call is unclear, Howe said.

Lunceford was a contractor at the facility, and the person he stabbed was a co-worker who he was supervising and who was said to be on friendly terms with him, Howe added.

“The only information we were able to gather is that they actually had a pretty good relationship, and it’s really unclear what the motive was to be attacked,” Howe said. “The stabbing victim described it as that, just out of the blue, he was attacked by Mr. Lunceford, and we still have no clear understanding about what brought that on.”

One consistent trait that Lunceford had that day, according to the victim’s co-workers in interviews by investigators after the shooting, was a blank, “thousand-yard stare,” Howe said.

“In this instance, the officers reported that there was no verbal responses by him, and (he was) just staring at them. And that’s something that the co-workers also indicated that they felt, like it was a different person than what they had seen before,” he said. 

It was noted that no traces of drugs or alcohol were found in Lunceford’s system from an autopsy performed on his body after the shooting.

“We just know that for some reason, unknown to any of us, he acted in a bizarre manner and was violent towards people,” Howe said.

Why Howe ruled the shooting justified

Considering the circumstances of the vast facility, numerous workers who could be put in danger, the uncertainty whether Lunceford still had a weapon and him not complying with the deputies’ orders, the shooting was justified in accordance with Kansas Revised Statute 21-5227, Howe said.

“Not only were (the deputies) concerned about the potential harm to other individuals, they also realized that he was attempting to escape, and he had committed a dangerous felony that had already caused great bodily harm or potentially death on another person,” Howe said.

The case took longer — more than eight months — for the District Attorney’s office to make a public determination about the deputies’ actions. Howe said that was, in part, due to the sprawling size of the crime scene at the Panasonic facility.

“This was one of the more complex ones that I’ve had to deal with because of just the scale of everything that we were dealing with, and I have said a number of times, I think it’s more important to do the right thing and to make the right decisions than to be fast about it,” he said.

Deputies are back on duty

While the shooting was being investigated, the two deputies were placed on administrative leave, but have returned to active duty, Roberson said at the press conference.

Deputy A has “been affected” by the shooting, Roberson added.

“That deputy has spent the last nine months thinking about this, and that’s very trying on a law enforcement officer. Anyone that’s involved in this can understand (that) even if you’re not involved in this, you can understand how impactful that is to not just that deputy, but also their family,” he said. 

Lunceford’s family has not made contact with the District Attorney’s office, but was offered the chance to view the deputies’ bodycam footage, Roberson said.

“I believe their attorney was the only one that watched the video, but we did show what we needed to show,” Roberson said.

Lunceford’s stabbing victim has recovered from his injuries, but it wasn’t known if they still work for their previous employer, Howe said.

While redacted police bodycam footage was shown to the media during Friday’s press conference, Howe said edited footage could be made publicly available later.

“(We might release it) down the road, perhaps, what we just showed. We are not going to provide the entire video,” he said. “I think what’s important is to show the important things that drive the decisions by my office, as well as allow people to have confidence in our criminal justice system and our law enforcement partners.”