Officer Shot and Killed in Kansas; Search for Suspects Underway

Just before 2 p.m. local time, a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas, was shot and transported to a hospital in critical condition after stopping the vehicle of an individual believed to be involved in an earlier shooting.

UPDATE 7:30PM ET: Captain Robert Melton was still inside his vehicle when he was shot. The New York Post reports that he was approaching suspects who matched the description of those allegedly behind a shooting incident earlier in the afternoon: those suspects opened fire on Melton before he could exit his vehicle.

**Update**: Chicago Tribune identified the wounded Kansas City police officer as Capt. Robert Melton. The Tribune reports that he was shot while still in his car. Attempts to resuscitate him at the hospital did not succeed. He was pronounced dead at the University of Kansas Hospital. 

**UPDATE**: The officer has died from the attack.

The name of the officer has not been released, but Kansas City police chief Terry Zeigler asks that Americans pray. Upon receipt of news of the officer down, he tweeted:

According to The Kansas City Star, the department “received a call about an armed disturbance at Second Street and Edgerton Drive” just after 1:30 p.m. The caller told police that “several people in a car were firing shots at them.” When officers arrived on scene, the occupants of the car got out and began to run. One was caught just before 2 p.m., and the officer stopped a car in which one of the others may have been traveling.

Shots were fired, and the officer was hit. SWAT and others are currently scouring the area in which the shooting occurred, trying to locate the suspect(s).

The Kansas City Police Department lost an officer on May 9 when 39-year-old Brad Lancaster, “a nine-year veteran” of the department, was shot and killed.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.