Two found dead in Johnson County shooting ending in a five-hour standoff with police

A man has been charged with murder in a shooting that killed two people and led to a five-hour standoff in Lenexa Friday.

The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office has charged Todd Michael Donovan, 53, with two counts of First-Degree Murder.

Friday night, around 8:30 p.m. police responded to a report of an armed disturbance at a home in the 7900 block of Hallet Street. When officers arrived, they heard multiple gunshots coming from the area of a home in that block, said Danny Chavez, a spokesman with Lenexa police.

Lenexa officers spoke on the phone with a man suspected of firing shots and learned he was inside his residence on Hallet Street. The man barricaded himself in the home and refused to comply with officer’s requests to come outside peacefully, Chavez said.

Chavez said negotiators spoke with the man for nearly two hours before he stopped speaking with law enforcement.

During the course of the negotiation, the suspect told police he had taken some pills, Chavez said.

“We were using tools — drones, robot — to ensure it was safe to make entry since we believed the suspect had already fired a weapon when officers arrived,” Chavez said.

Around 1:50 a.m., the Lenexa Tactical Team entered the home and took the man into custody. He was immediately taken to a hospital on a suspected overdose, Chavez said.

Officers found a woman and a man both dead inside the home. Both victims, who have not been identified, but police said are related to Donovan, where believed to have suffered gunshot wounds. Police are investigating the incident as a double homicide, Chavez said.

“The preliminary investigation indicates that both deceased individuals were shot,” Chavez said in a news release. “As part of this investigation, it was also learned that a neighbors dog was shot and killed around the same time that officers responded on the initial call.”

Chavez said the suspect is alive and recovering at a hospital.

The killings mark Lenexa’s second and third homicides of 2024, according to data maintained by The Star.

This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 1:17 PM.