Lawrence police say the Minnesota man who allegedly broke into City Hall Monday morning and was shot and killed by an armed city employee had been traveling through Kansas on a Greyhound bus and was removed from a service station for his “erratic behavior.”
Police allege that Omar Dominguez Gavilan, 28, of Buffalo, Minnesota, entered City Hall through a locked back door just before 8 a.m. Monday, went up a stairwell to the fourth floor, broke out a window and entered the office area, which is secured and not open to the public.
“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,” police said in a Tuesday news release.
“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,” according to the release.
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Police said that details of the physical fight “will not be released until the investigation is complete because detectives are still interviewing those involved and we don’t want to influence any witness accounts.”
The release did not clarify whether Gavilan had been armed.
“Within seconds of the shots being fired, LKPD 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,” according to the release.
First responders with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical arrived and took over his care but pronounced him dead at the scene, according to the release.
Police said Gavilan had been 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,” police said in the update. “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. LKPD did not have contact with Gavilan Sunday evening nor into the morning hours on Monday.”
LPD detectives expect to have a full report of the events submitted to the Douglas County district attorney’s office within the next two to three weeks, according to the release.
“During this time, the City employee is on administrative leave, which is standard,” according to the release.
No city employees were physically harmed in the incident, City Manager Craig Owens said Monday.
The fourth floor of City Hall is the location of the city manager’s, city attorney’s and budget manager’s offices, Police Chief Rich Lockhart said Monday.
City Hall will be closed through Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 6 and 7, with the exception of Tuesday evening’s city commission meeting. Plans are to reopen to the public on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Read more from Monday in this article.
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