Kidnapped Girl, 5, Killed In Shootout With Police And Suspect Exchanging Gunfire

A kidnapped girl, 5, was killed in a shootout between police and her abductor Friday night in Leavenworth, Kansas. Police pursued the suspect in a car chase and ended when he exited his vehicle and began firing his gun at officers.

Leavenworth Police Chief Patrick Kitchens says this, as reported by MSN News:

“The matter unfolded quite rapidly. We are still trying to sort out specifically what happened.”

Kitchens was also one of the officers called to the scene when the shootout happened. At about 7:30 pm Friday night, Cadence Harris in Atchison was reported kidnapped. The 5-year-old girl and her abductor knew each other, but police didn’t offer details. The Kansas City Star writes in an updated report that the man who kidnapped Cadence wasn’t her biological father, but a man who had an on-and-off again relationship with his mother, according to his grandmother, Norma Campbell. She also insists the incident wasn’t a “kidnapping” because Cadence lived with them. She says:

“He didn’t kidnap her. She lived here with us. She was like a granddaughter to me.”

Campbell adds that her 30-year-old grandson was on medication for a mental condition.

“He had problems. But he loved her,” Campbell says.

Missouri and Kansas police were involved in the car chase because the suspect crossed the state line before making his way Leavenworth. When the suspect got out of his car and began shooting at cops, the girl was shot during the violent scene. Kitchens says it’s not clear if the girl was hit by police or the suspect during the gunfire exchange.

The girl died from her injuries and the kidnap suspect is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Kitchens says there’s a lot of information to sort out and that this is a complicated case.

Mark Malick, special agent in charge of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, says this investigation is “nowhere near concluded.”

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is collaborating with Leavenworth and Atchison police in the investigation. Prosecutors worked Saturday to determine when they will file charges.

Another factor in the report reveals that speeds reached up to 80 and 90 mph, according to Kitchens. The chase crossed the Missouri River before it ended on 20th Street and Metropolitan Avenue.

Kitchens believed at first the kidnapped girl was killed in the police shootout by the abductor, but video cameras are being examined since part of the events were recorded.

[Photo Credit: KCTV5 via Kansas City Star]