Law enforcement surveillance in the area surrounding Highlands Elementary school days before the officer-involved shooting on Friday was not related to the home in Fairway where the incident took place nor to suspect Dylan Christopher Ruffin, Johnson County Sheriff’s officials said today.
Parents reported that some of their students had been told they had to stay inside during their regularly scheduled recess on Tuesday, Feb. 26. Following the shooting a few days later, some Highlands parents wondered whether there was a connection between the two incidents.
Earlier this week, the Shawnee Mission School District’s spokesman indicated to the Shawnee Mission Post that it had been Mission police conducting the surveillance in the area. Mission police contested that report, saying no one from their department had been on school property that day.
Today, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said it was units from their agency were were on scene at Highlands that Tuesday — not officers from the Mission Police Department or the Fairway Police Department. The surveillance assignment was not related to either the address where the shooting took place, or to Dylan Christopher Ruffin, the man being held on charges stemming related the officer-involved shooting Friday.
“We did have units conducting surveillance in the area on February 26th on an unrelated matter,” said Lt. Paul Nonnast, the Public Information Officer for the Sheriff’s Office. “We notified Mission PD of our presence, as a courtesy, and they in turn notified the school. Upon learning the school schedule was being impacted, we decided to complete our assignment at a later time and our units left the area.”
