A Kansas police officer and the man he was trying to arrest shot and killed each other after an illegal fireworks report, authorities said Saturday.
Brandon Gaede, a 30-year-old deputy with the Phillips County Sheriff’s office, responded to the illegal fireworks call around 9:30 p.m. Friday in Phillipsburg, police said.
He encountered 27-year-old Kolton Griffith and determined he was responsible for the “non-consumer-grade fireworks” being detonated at the scene, according to investigators.
As Gaede was attempting to arrest Griffith, the suspect tried to escape, pulled a handgun and shot Gaede, authorities said. Though he was fatally wounded, Gaede grabbed his own service weapon and fatally shot Griffith.
Gaede was rushed to a local hospital in the 2,000-person town in northern Kansas, where he died about an hour later.
“My prayers are with the family and loved ones of Phillips County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Gaede,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) wrote on social media. “Kansas lost one of its finest.”
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which normally handles police shootings in the state, had to decline the case due to a conflict of interest. A KBI employee is related to either Gaede or Griffith, according to local Wichita CBS affiliate KWCH. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office will handle the case instead.
