A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper and Mission police officer were justified in firing their service weapons at a suspect who fatally shot a Fairway police officer during an August standoff inside a QuikTrip bathroom and will not face criminal charges, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced Monday.
The two officers – Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Derek Kyser and Mission Police Officer Tanner Eddings – each fired shots at the suspect, Shannon Marshall, 40 of Ashland City, Tennessee, as he refused to surrender from inside a QuikTrip bathroom stall in Mission, according to Howe’s account of the incident.
Though both officers fired shots, it was shots by Kyser that killed Marshall, Howe said. .
Fairway Police Officer Jonah Oswald also suffered a wound from a shot fired by Marshall and died a day later.
The gunfire was the culmination of a complicated series of events that began early on Sunday morning, Aug. 6, Howe’s report said.
The report describes a harrowing shootout in the restroom where Marshall was hiding and Oswald was shot.
A high speed chase that started in Lenexa
It began with the theft of a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which had been parked in front of another QuikTrip at 95th Street just off Interstate 35 in Lenexa.
The report said Lenexa Police quickly found the vehicle and began a low-speed pursuit through some business parking lots near the interstate exit.
At one point, a police car was rammed by a female driver, identified later as Andrea Cothran. The Cherokee then headed onto the interstate with Marshall as a passenger and Cothran driving.
At that point it became a high-speed chase joined by several other Lenexa police cars, with speeds of up to 120 miles an hour. The group came upon the Cherokee wrecked and abandoned at the Lamar Avenue exit ramp on I-35.
A standoff inside a Mission QuikTrip
A Lenexa officer then looked for Marshall and Cothran at a nearby QuikTrip where she saw two people entering the men’s and women’s restrooms. Howe’s report says Cothran was arrested inside the women’s room.
But Marshall remained inside the men’s bathroom as law enforcement gathered in the hallway outside.
Howe said several officers warned Marshall he would be “tased” if he did not surrender. He refused and blocked efforts to kick the stall door open.
Kyser then backed into a handicapped stall at the back of the restroom to make room for other officers, the report said.
It was at that point that Oswald pushed against the partially open stall door and was shot in the head by Marshall, who had stuck his gun hand out, the account said. Oswald died at the hospital the next day.
Eddings exchanged gunfire with Marshall through the open hallway door, and Kyser shot around the stall partitions. Kyser then raised himself above the partition and shot downward several times at Marshall, the report said.
“I’m probably going to die in this bathroom stall”
The details were related from the investigation into officer-involved shootings.
Howe said the rationale for shooting sided with the officers, who rightly believed the suspect to be a continuing danger, according to the report.
The officers did not initially know Marshall was armed and had intended to use non-deadly force to detain him at the Mission QuikTrip.
Kyser told investigators that once he saw Oswald get shot, “at that point I thought, ‘Oh, crap, this is a really bad spot to be in and I’m probably gonna die in this bathroom stall,’” the report said.
At that point, other officers had retreated but Kyser was still trapped in the handicapped stall, the only officer in the bathroom with Marshall, according to Howe’s report.
In an effort to try to keep other people from dying, Kyser said he fired several rounds over the partition.
A woman who was with Marshall faces charges
Marshall suffered eight wounds caused by six bullets and his cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.
Deadly force was justified, Howe said, because the officers were defending themselves and others against a threat of death of great bodily harm.
Cothran, 32 of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, faces three felony charges related to the incident: aggravated battery with intent to do great bodily harm, recklessly fleeing from a law enforcement officer and theft of an amount less than $25,000.
A misdemeanor charge of reckless driving is also pending.
Roxie Hammill is a freelance journalist who reports frequently for the Post and other Kansas City area publications. You can reach her at roxieham@gmail.com.
