KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The man suspected of killing two Missouri deputies and injuring two others Monday was previously sentenced in connection to shooting at a Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff's deputy in 2014.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a Blue Alert around 4:28 p.m. Monday for Richard Dean Bird, 45, after the deadly shooting of a Christian County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office deputy. Bird allegedly killed a second sheriff's deputy during the manhunt.
On Tuesday, the Christian County Sheriff's Office identified the fallen deputies as Deputy Gabriel Ramierz, 30, and Deputy Michael Hislope, 40.
Bird was later killed in a shootout with law enforcement after a manhunt that began Monday evening.
The circumstances of Monday's initial shooting and then an hours-long manhunt are similar to an incident in September 2014 in Johnson County, Kansas.
During the incident in 2014, Bird was suspected of shooting at a Johnson County, Kansas, sheriff’s deputy who found Bird trying to steal equipment from a construction site at 191st Street and State Line Road.
Following the attempted shooting, a search for Bird kept students at multiple Blue Valley schools inside.
Bird, who lived in Belton at the time, was eventually taken into custody and charged with attempted first-degree murder and was initially held on a $1 million bond.
Bird was sentenced in 2016 with aggravated battery, fleeing or attempt to elude a law enforcement officer, criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling/vehicle, obstructing the legal process and possession of opiates, opium, narcotic drugs or designated stimulants, according to Kansas Courts and the Kansas Department of Corrections.
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