U.S. Marshal fatally shoots Kansas man in Kansas City’s Oak Park neighborhood
Update: The Missouri State Highway Patrol on Wednesday evening identified the man shot and killed as Joshua Bailes, 40.
A U.S. Marshal on Wednesday shot and killed a Kansas man who authorities said was a federal escapee with a warrant out for his arrest.
The 40-year-old man had escaped from a facility in Kansas, according to Sgt. Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Marshals spotted a suspect but then lost sight of him sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. near a residence in the 3500 block of Bellefontaine, Lowe said.
Marshals thought the man may have gone inside a house and they located a relative outside who said the man lived at the residence, Lowe said.
When marshals approached the house, the man opened the door with a handgun pointed at them, Lowe said. One marshal fired one round at the man.
Marshals attempted life-saving measures, but the man died.
Lowe said the man was a suspect in a Kansas City, Kansas, shooting and an aggravated robbery. He did not know when those alleged crimes had occurred.
The highway patrol is investigating the incident.
On Wednesday evening, the Patrol identified the man shot and killed as 40-year-old Joshua Bailes.
Records from the Bureau of Prisons and filed in the U.S. District of Kansas show Bailes was placed on escape status after he had been transferred to a residential reentry facility in Leavenworth.
According to a criminal complaint filed in September, a U.S. Marshals deputy reported that Bailes was absent from his bunk at the reentry center on the night of Sept. 17. Efforts by reentry center staff to locate him were unsuccessful, the deputy wrote in an affidavit seeking criminal charges.
Bailes was living at the reentry facility as part of his scheduled release on a 10-year federal prison sentence.
In November 2014, Bailes pleaded guilty to two counts of illegal firearm possession by a convicted felon. That case involved the illegal sale of stolen firearms — including revolvers, pistols, rifles and a shotgun — to undercover agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 3:13 PM.
