Inmate kills deputy in escape attempt

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An inmate overpowered two deputy sheriffs while being transported to a Kansas City courthouse Friday, resulting in a shooting that killed one deputy and critically wounded the other, authorities said.

The suspect also was shot during the confrontation in a gated area near the Wyandotte County Courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas.

Investigators said the inmate might have grabbed a weapon from one of the deputies during a struggle after he got out of a van transporting him late Friday morning.

"It is very possible that with their own firearm, they were both shot," sheriff's Maj. Kelli Bailiff said during a news conference at the University of Kansas Hospital.

The slain deputy was identified as 35-year-old Patrick Rohrer, who had been with the department for seven years.

The wounded deputy and the suspect were undergoing surgeries Friday afternoon. No other information had been released about the deputy or suspect.

Bailiff said the inmate was being taken across the street from the jail, to the services building, for a court hearing. The inmate was taken in a van to a gated area behind the building, and when he got out of van, he somehow overtook and shot the deputies, Bailiff said.

Authorities said it was too early in the investigation to publicly detail how the shootings could have happened.

Investigators will be reviewing surveillance video, according to Kansas City Police Department spokesman Zac Blair. The department is leading the investigation.

Two Kansas City officers were shot and killed within less than three months in 2016. Capt. Robert Melton was slain in July while searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting.

Melton was part of the police honor guard for Detective Brad Lancaster, who was fatally shot earlier in 2016 near the Kansas Speedway.