KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Flags throughout the state of Kansas have been ordered to fly at half-staff from sun up to sun down Monday in honor of slain Fairway Police Officer Jonah Oswald.
His funeral service is scheduled for Monday.
“I am directing flags statewide be flown at half-staff to honor Jonah Oswald, a Fairway Police Department Officer whose life was cut tragically short while he was protecting his community,”Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said in a statement announcing the order. “Jonah’s death is a reminder of the sacrifices our law enforcement officers make every day in service to their fellow Kansans. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they mourn his loss.”
Oswald, 29, a four-year veteran with the Fairway Police Department who previously worked for the Buckner police, was shot Sunday inside a QuikTrip in Mission after he responded to help officers from other departments in a chase.
Lenexa police identified a stolen vehicle around 7:30 a.m. at a QuikTrip on West 95th Street near Interstate 35.
The suspect struck a Lenexa police vehicle and fled the scene, which led to a pursuit along northbound I-35 to Lamar Avenue in Mission.
After the vehicle crashed, a man and woman exited the vehicle and ran inside a different QuikTrip from the original convenience-store location, according to Lenexa police.
Inside the second QuikTrip, there was “an exchange of gunfire,” which left Oswald injured and one of the suspects — Shannon W. Marshall, 40, of Ashland City, Tennessee — dead.
Oswald was taken to the University of Kansas Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
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The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is helping cover calls for service in Fairway as the small department grapples with Oswald’s death.
Law enforcement officers from across the Kansas City area are standing 24-hour over Oswald until a visitation Sunday and memorial service Monday.
The woman with Marshall — Andrea R. Cothran, 32, of Goodlettsville, Tennessee — was arrested and charged with three felonies in connection with the incident.
She is being held at the Johnson County Detention Center on a $1 million bond.
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