By Lucky Kidd
GREAT BEND, Kan. — Two people are dead after a Friday morning shooting in Great Bend and a high speed chase that extended into Stafford County, ending in a crash southwest of St. John.
According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the investigation at the request of the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Great Bend Police were dispatched at 9:12 AM to the 1500 block of 7th Street on a disturbance call Great Bend Police Chief Steve Haulmark said in a statement Friday officers were told was domestic in nature en route.
Upon arrival, responders found 32-year-old Esmeralda Torres-Lopez on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound. Torres-Lopez was taken by Great Bend Fire-EMS to University of Kansas Health Systems-Great Bend where she was pronounced dead.
Preliminary information indicated Mario Martinez-Garcia, 32, had entered her workplace and forced her outside where she was shot. Martinez-Garcia then fled the scene in a pickup that was spotted by police detectives nearby speeding away, at which point a pursuit began south on US 281 that would involved Barton and Stafford County Sheriff’s Detectives and the St. John Police Department
After a tire deflation device had been deployed, a Barton County deputy conducted a tactical vehicle intervention which caused the truck to leave US 50 just over 2 ½ miles west of the US 50/281 Roundabout causing it to hit a fence and roll, coming to a rest in a field.
Officers approached the vehicle and found Martinez-Garcia dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead by a coroner at 9:45 AM.
In a Friday afternoon statement, the KBI said it will conduct a thorough investigation into these Incidents, with findings to be presented to prosecutors for review.
