Olathe police shoot teenager while investigating home burglary where guns were stolen
Officers shot an armed 16-year-old boy during a confrontation early Monday while investigating a home burglary where handguns were stolen in Olathe, police said.
The teen was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition Monday morning, said Sgt. Joel Yeldell, a spokesman for the Olathe Police Department.
A second person was taken into custody by police. No officers were injured in the incident, he said.
The shooting occurred just after midnight Monday in the 400 block of South Cardinal Drive, a residential neighborhood in Olathe.
Officers were investigating a previous residential burglary when they found two people who were walking in the area and were armed with handguns, Yeldell said.
When police approached them, the contact escalated to where officers fired shots wounding the teenager, he said.
Details of how the contact escalated were not being released, only that the result was use of lethal force by the officers, Yeldell said.
Karen Rhoads, who lives in the neighborhood, was tending to her pets when she noticed police in the area. As she saw two people walking down the street, police lights flooded the area.
“All of a sudden, I started hearing shooting,” she said. “My son was running up the stairs and I yelled, ‘Hit the ground.”
She told her other two children to do the same.
It was sad, Rhoads said, learning that one of the people involved was 16-years-old.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team is investigating the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call the Olathe Police Department at 913-971-6950 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 6:21 AM.
