The man who was shot and killed by a city employee in Lawrence City Hall Monday had asked to be brought to the local Amtrak station and did not have a firearm, according to law enforcement spokespeople.

Police allege that Omar Dominguez Gavilan, 28, of Buffalo, Minnesota, entered City Hall through a locked back door, broke out a window on the fourth floor and entered an office area not open to the public. 

Laura McCabe, a spokesperson for the police department, said employees felt threatened and called court security for help. An on-duty court security officer approached Gavilan and asked him to put his hands behind his back. “Gavilan did not comply and began fighting the security officer,” according to a city press release. 

“The suspect did not have a firearm, and the court security officer discharged his firearm during the attack,” McCabe said Thursday. She said no one else had discharged a weapon during the altercation. 

Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April McCollum said KHP troopers were stopped at the Lawrence Service Area east of town on the Kansas Turnpike for their meal break on Sunday when they encountered Gavilan. 

A Lawrence Police Department press release said KHP was “called to remove him from the service station area due to erratic behavior.” McCollum did not respond to a question seeking more clarity on his behavior. 

Gavilan asked to be brought to the Amtrak station, according to McCollum. Troopers brought him to the station and McCollum said he displayed “unusual behavior but did not provide a basis for arrest or involuntary commitment to a substance abuse or mental health facility.”

“The Kansas Turnpike Authority notified the Douglas County Dispatch on the evening of January 4 that Mr. Gavilan was dropped off at the Amtrak station in Lawrence,” McCollum said.

Police said that details of the physical fight inside City Hall “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.”

McCabe said they expect the final report to be finished in two or three weeks. 

“Included in those reports will be answers to many questions like how the suspect gained entry, precise discussions and actions of all involved, and background and training information,” McCabe said.

City staff members have previously asked the Kansas Legislature to adopt a law prohibiting state-funded entities from transporting people across county lines without first ensuring they are connected to services at their destination. They said places like Lawrence that have more ample services for people who are unhoused could not be called on to provide services for people across the state. 

When asked if Kansas Highway Patrol dropping Gavilan at the Lawrence Amtrak station was an example of this, city spokesperson Cori Wallace said the city had no comment. 

McCabe said the situation was not similar to outside law enforcement dropping people in Lawrence to take advantage of the city’s services and the police department is thankful for KHP’s work in the community.  

Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.

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