Feb 25, 2021

Kan. officers, deputies cleared in killing of man outside his home

Posted Feb 25, 2021 1:00 AM
Police on the scene of the May 2019 investigation photo courtesy KWCH
Police on the scene of the May 2019 investigation photo courtesy KWCH

WICHITA, KAN. (AP) — Sedgwick County’s top prosecutor has cleared five Wichita officers and county sheriff’s deputies of wrongdoing in the fatal 2019 shooting of a Wichita man outside his home.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Tuesday in a news conference that a toxicology report found evidence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and PCP use by 49-year-old Robert Sabater, who was shot and killed by police on May 27, 2019.

Police say Sabater twice called police to his home in the hours before he was killed, claiming people were outside. Bennett said officers returned a third time on a report of shots fired inside Sabater's home. When officers and deputies arrived, Sabater fired shots at them from his front door, police said.

Sabater later ran into the street with a gun and pointed it at police when he was ordered to drop it, Bennett said. The investigation showed officers fired fired 46 rounds at Sabater.

“Based upon the totality of the circumstances, what I had found here in this report is that these officers and these deputies are immune from prosecution under Kansas law,” Bennett said.