‘Won’t ever let go’: Former sheriff reflects on killing of Wyandotte County deputies

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Sheriff Don Ash will never forget the day he received the call.

Two of his transport deputies had been shot by a man who wrestled one of their guns away in a parking lot by the courthouse.

“It’s one of those events that, you know, that you won’t ever let go of,” said Ash. “Most people in the sheriff’s office could tell you exactly where they were and exactly, what they were doing when they learned what had happened, when they received the information.”

He was on Day Two of driving to a sheriff’s conference in New Orleans and two hours from his destination. The information came in piecemeal. By the time he arrived, the other sheriffs had all heard the news. The Sedgwick County Sheriff offered a plane to get him back.

The deputies were shot at 11:15 a.m. on June 15, 2018. Deputy Patrick Rohrer died later that day. Deputy Theresa “TK” King died one day later.

Antoine Fielder was charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of aggravated robbery. The charges sought the death penalty. In December, Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree arranged a plea deal with the blessing of the deputies’ families. In exchange for a guilty plea, the death penalty would be off the table and he would instead get a life sentence with no chance for parole.

MOVING FORWARD

Thursday morning, six years and eight months after their loved ones were murdered, the deputies’ families were finally able to see him sentenced.

Ash has been to countless hearings for Fielder supporting the deputies’ families all the way up to the sentencing.

“We’re glad to get to today and get to a place where I think everybody can move forward,” said Ash, “the family members, the members of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement generally, and really our entire community.”

Moving forward, he said, is not the same as putting it behind them.

“I think these things really I don’t think there is closure to them,” Ash remarked. “I think it’s a process of learning to move through it and move with it as you move forward in your life.”

But it does close this phase of it, he said. There is some comfort knowing there will likely be no more court hearings, no parole hearing, no sitting through a trial with grisly details.

OFFERING GRATITUDE

Ash was Wyandotte County Sheriff from 2009-2021. Before that, his career was with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. He started as a cadet on Feb. 7, 1972. He was 18 years old.

“I spent 50 years in law enforcement in this community, and I’ve been to way too many police funerals,” he said.

He’s been to funerals in the Kansas City metro and elsewhere in the country. It’s made him especially grateful for the community response here. He gets a bit teary eyed when he talks about it.

“This community cares and supports law enforcement, and that means so much to the men and women that get up, suit up and show up every day to do the job,” Ash said.

He and so many others will likely always hold memories of the awfulness of that day. But he also has memories of the outpouring of support that followed.

For that, he wants to say thank you — to the families who came to a candlelight vigil; to the thousands who filled Sporting KC’s soccer stadium for the funerals; to law enforcement from as far away as Topeka who filled in so that Wyandotte County deputies could attend; and to the Greater Kansas City Crime Commission, whose Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment Fund provided for the families’ immediate financial needs.

“Thank you just isn’t enough, but it’s the best I can do to say thank you,” Ash said, “because I’ll never, ever forget it the way people stepped up all throughout the metro area.”

The plea agreement Fielder signed gives him 14 days to appeal his sentence, only on the grounds of ineffective counsel.

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