Slain Kansas sheriff’s deputies both left behind children

Authorities say two Kansas deputies who were fatally shot while transporting an inmate between jail and a court hearing both leave behind children.

Kansas City, Kansas, police confirmed on their Facebook page that Deputy Theresa King, 44, died just after midnight following the shooting on Friday. Officer Patrick Rohrer, 35, died earlier.

The inmate was also shot during the confrontation in a gated area near the Wyandotte County Courthouse and was taken to a hospital. His condition was not known. Investigators said the inmate may have grabbed a weapon from one of the deputies during a struggle after he got out of a van late Friday morning.

“It is very possible that with their own firearm, they were both shot,” Wyandotte County sheriff’s Maj. Kelli Bailiff said during a news conference Friday at the University of Kansas Hospital.

Terry Zeigler, the police chief of Kansas City, Kansas, said he couldn’t release the name of the inmate suspected of shooting them Friday because he hasn’t been charged. The inmate was also shot, and Zeigler said the last he heard, he was in stable condition.

Rohrer had been with the department for seven years and King for 13 years.

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 the van, he somehow overpowered and shot the deputies, Bailiff said.

Bailiff said investigators do not believe the public is in any danger. Video from the scene showed the courthouse surrounded by yellow police tape, several police vehicles parked in the street and numerous uniformed law enforcement officers walking the grounds.

Kansas City, Kansas has dealt with other officer shootings in the recent years.

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 Det. Brad Lancaster, who was fatally shot earlier in 2016 near the Kansas Speedway.

In 2015, Wyandotte County Deputy Scott Wood was shot seven times but survived.