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Tonganoxie man charged with capital murder in KCK detective’s death

By The Associated Press - | May 11, 2016

? KANSAS CITY, KAN. — A Tonganoxie man accused in the fatal shooting of a Kansas City, Kan., police detective was charged with capital murder today, a day after Missouri authorities charged him with shooting a woman during a failed attempt to steal a car and escape law enforcement.

Curtis Ayers, 28, is accused in the killing of Detective Brad Lancaster, who died at a hospital Monday, hours after being shot.

The intentional killing of a police officer carries a possible death sentence in Kansas.

Police were called Monday to the Hollywood Casino near Kansas Speedway on Monday after a casino security agent saw Ayers loitering in the parking lot, Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission spokesman Fred Waller said.

Lancaster confronted Ayers, who shot the detective at least twice and fled in Lancaster’s unmarked car. Ayers later abandoned that car and carjacked another with two children inside. He abandoned that vehicle, leaving the children unharmed. He then took another car that he wrecked in Kansas City, Mo.. Officers there shot him, moments after he had shot and wounded a woman in a failed carjacking, investigators said.

Several law enforcement agencies surrounded a residence authorities thought Ayers might have been in Monday. Traffic was blocked on U.S. Highway 24-40, the school district was on lockdown as Kansas Highway Patrol helicopters hovered overhead.

Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson announced late this afternoon that he has filed aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and criminal possession of a firearm against Ayers for incidents that occurred Monday in Leavenworth County.

Jerome Gorman, the district attorney in Wyandotte County, said today that he also charged Ayers with two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.

Ayers is in custody in Jackson County, Missouri, where he was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault, resisting arrest, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and three counts of armed criminal action.

— Mirror editor Shawn F. Linenberger contributed to this story.