Oct. 02--A 19-year-old man who shot at Salina police officers Thursday evening, hitting one in the face, may have been dead for much of the six-hour standoff that followed.
"I'm almost 100 percent certain that the suspect committed suicide," Deputy Salina Police Chief Carson Mansfield said Monday morning. He also said that Marijan Gadson likely killed himself shortly after firing about a half-dozen shots at officers who had entered the house at 308 N. 13th. Mansfield said police had "gotten a call of a stolen vehicle, or a civil matter -- they weren't sure which," and were in the kitchen when several shots came through the kitchen wall and a door to the basement.
One of those shots struck officer Chuck Huen, 38, in the right eye, exiting at his right ear, and more shots came as officers moved out of the kitchen and into the living room. Mansfield said one officer returned fire, but apparently didn't hit Gadson.
Mansfield said he had listened to audio recordings of the incident over the weekend, and "You can hear the officers repeatedly asking him to come up so they could talk to him," followed by several shots.
They did all the could
Police had reports that Gadson had a gun, "but he hadn't threatened anybody, and lots of people in this city carry guns legally," Mansfield said. "I don't know what they could have done to avoid this."
After the shooting, police surrounded the house, and spent several hours trying to contact Gadson by calling his cellphone, throwing a phone into the house for him, and calling him on loudspeakers, before using tear gas.
Just before 6 a.m., a police special response team entered the house, finding Gadson dead in the basement.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident, Mansfield said, and the police department is conducting its own internal investigation, which is standard procedure any time an officer fires a weapon.
Despite the serious nature of his injuries, Huen walked to an ambulance after being shot.
Back to Oklahoma City
He was first taken to Salina Regional Health Center, transferred to a hospital in Wichita, and then to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. He was released Saturday afternoon and came home to Salina, but went back to Oklahoma on Monday for follow-up treatment.
Huen, an Iraq war veteran, has been with the Salina Police Department for 10 years. Mansfield said it was "premature" to speculate on whether the injury -- he lost his right eye -- would end Huen's law enforcement career.
A fund to help Huen's family has been established at Bennington State Bank by the Salina Fraternal Order of Police.
-- Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by email at [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - The Salina Journal, Kan.
