DOUGLAS COUNTY– A man who broke into City Hall in Lawrence early Monday and was fatally shot by a city employee has been identified as 28-year-old Omar Dominguez Gavilan from Buffalo, Minnesota, according to Lawrence Police spokesperson Laura McCabe.
Investigators learned that Gavilan was traveling through Kansas on a Greyhound bus. Early Sunday evening he was at Lawrence’s Kansas Turnpike Authority service station on I-70, just east of town. The Kansas Highway Patrol was called to remove him from the service station area due to erratic behavior. KHP transported Gavilan to the Amtrak station in Lawrence. Police did not have contact with Gavilan Sunday evening nor into the morning hours on Monday.
Just before 8a.m. Monday, Gavilan entered the City Hall building through a locked back door, proceeded up a stairwell to the 4th floor where he broke out a window within another secure door to enter the office area. Employees encountered Gavilan along his route and notified authorities that an intruder was in the building and attempted to find a safe area for themselves. An on-duty court security officer ultimately approached the man, announced his authority, and asked him to put his hands behind his back.
Gavilan did not comply and began fighting the security officer. Details of the physical fight that followed will not be released until the investigation is complete because detectives are still interviewing those involved and police don’t want to influence any witness accounts. Within seconds of the shots being fired, Lawrence police officers were on-scene and began rendering aid to Gavilan along with the initial security officer and a second security officer who had arrived at the scene. Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical quickly arrived, took over his care, then pronounced him deceased at the scene.
Detectives in the Lawrence Police Investigations Unit expect to have a full report of the events sent to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for review within 2-3 weeks. During this time, the City employee is on administrative leave, which is standard.