Kansas Sheriff Gunned Down

[PAWOL2]

My prayers are with him and his family and friends. Godspeed.


Sheriff shot to death in Kansas

EUREKA, Kansas (AP) -- A sheriff was shot and killed after serving an arrest warrant Wednesday, and a suspect was arrested after barricading himself in a house for most of the day.

Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels and two deputies went to a house Wednesday morning to serve felony warrants on someone at the home.

It was not immediately known whether the suspect in the shooting was the person named in the warrant.

Attorney General Phill Kline called Samuels' death "a tragic loss not only for the law enforcement community but for the entire state of Kansas."





http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/20/sheriff.killed.ap/index.html

[DelC]

A true tragedy, indeed.

For those wondering, EUREKA is about halfway between Emporia and Wichita on I-35, and then about 35 mile East on Hwy 54.


The town of Eureka has a population of 2,914. Eureka is in Greenwood County, which has a pop of 7,673.

[gota89stang]

January 20, 2005

Sheriff gunned down

Greenwood Co.'s Matt Samuels dies while trying to serve warrants

BY HURST LAVIANA AND DANA STRONGIN

The Wichita Eagle

EUREKA - The sheriff of Greenwood County was shot to death Wednesday. Sheriff Matt Samuels, 42, was shot about 10 a.m. at a home in the Hilltop area of northeast Greenwood County. Samuels was serving a search warrant for the home, and an arrest warrant for a man wanted on burglary and theft charges and a parole violation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said.

Although early reports had the sheriff airlifted to a Wichita hospital, Whitney Watson, spokesman for the Kansas attorney general's office, said that Samuels died at the scene.

KBI spokesman Kyle Smith said three people at the house were taken into custody at the time of the shooting, but the shooter barricaded himself inside. Officers from the KBI, Kansas Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies remained at the scene throughout the day, trying to negotiate the man's surrender.

The fourth suspect was taken into custody late Wednesday afternoon after being sprayed with pepper spray, Smith said. He said shots were fired at officers during his arrest, but no one was hit.

The names and ages of the four suspects were not released.

Watson said that although the fate of the death penalty is in limbo because of a recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling, the attorney general's office would likely seek the death penalty in this killing.

The arrest warrant was for a parolee Watson identified as Scott Cheever, 23, who is accused of breaking contact with his parole officer on Jan. 5. Watson would not say whether Cheever was one of the four people arrested.

Cheever served time in prison on a 2000 Greenwood County aggravated robbery charge and a 2003 charge of trafficking contraband in a correctional institution in Ellsworth County.

Greenwood County residents said the robbery Cheever is accused of occurred at the Johnson's General Store in Eureka.

Cheever was a star football player in high school, but later started getting in trouble with the law, said Jola Casey, owner of the newspaper in nearby Madison.

Hilltop, one of the most secluded parts of eastern Kansas, is about 50 miles northeast of Wichita as a crow flies. The distance by highway is closer to 100 miles.

Hilltop has about three buildings, said Mary Cook, a Eureka resident.

"There's nothing there."

Several schools near Hilltop, including those in Madison and Hamilton, were locked down as a precaution until the fourth suspect was taken into custody, parents said.

In Eureka, the county seat and Samuels' hometown, flags were flying at half-staff at the county courthouse and the senior center Wednesday afternoon.

Although rumors about the shooting started before noon, confirmation that Samuels had died didn't come until a late-afternoon news conference at Eureka Memorial Hall, where city offices are housed.

More than three dozen local officials and residents showed up at the conference to find out what had happened to their sheriff.

"This is a terrible time," Mary Cook said. "I feel like I've got to wake up."

"This is an awful thing for Greenwood County," added Tammy Davis, who works with Cook at a greenhouse in Eureka.

Dick Clasen, editor and publisher of the Eureka Herald, was delivering the newspapers when a co-worker called to say that a scanner report said, "Shots fired; officer down."

"Later on, I found out that it was the sheriff," Clasen said.

Eureka is "a big scanner town," said City Administrator Brian Garrels, and concerned people were listening all day, trying to figure out what was going on.

City officials canceled an evening meeting because everyone wanted to be able to watch the news instead.

"A meeting would be meaningless compared to what happened," Garrels said. "Meetings can always be rescheduled."

Crime in Greenwood County is mostly limited to drug-related incidents, especially involving methamphetamine, Casey said.

Meth is a "continually growing source of crime" in the area, she said. Samuels had been working to fight meth and held an awareness session in October.

Clasen said Samuels joined the Greenwood County Sheriff's Department in 1986 and was first elected sheriff in 2000. He was re-elected in 2004.

Undersheriff Kendel Bartholomew will likely serve as the acting sheriff until an election is held, Watson said.

[momo13]

It goes without saying, or at least is should, that my thoughts and prayers are with Officer Samuels, his family and colleagues. I guess for everybody here tonight. I hope this is the last of these for a long damn time. I'm so sorry. Is there a fund for his family?

:(