Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents are continuing to piece together what caused a man to shoot two Jewell County deputies Tuesday morning at the Sheriff’s Office in Mankato.
Preliminary information indicates that 40-year-old Jason L. Whitson entered the Sheriff’s Office shortly before 8 a.m. asking to talk with a deputy. As a sheriff’s deputy approached to speak with him, Whitson fired multiple times through a door that led into the dispatch room. Two deputies were injured during the shooting. KBI says officers did not discharge their firearms.
Whitson then fled the Sheriff’s Office and was quickly located a short time later. At approximately 8:45 a.m. a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper spotted Whitson’s vehicle and pursued him eastbound on US Highway 24. When the vehicle was just south of Minneapolis, an adult female and five minor children were allowed to exit. Whitson continued onto US-81 where law enforcement used a maneuver forcing the vehicle to stop.
Once the vehicle was stopped, KHP troopers approached and found Whitson suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No law enforcement officers at the scene discharged their firearms. EMS responded and Whitson was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Both Sheriff’s deputies are expected to recover. One deputy has been released. The other remains at a Salina hospital, but is out of surgery and is in stable condition.
The investigation is ongoing and KBI says no further information is being released at this time.
