Husband shoots wife outside elementary school after dropping off kids

A husband shot his wife outside a Wichita elementary school on the morning of Monday, Sept. 23, leaving her with serious injuries, police said.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter told reporters the couple had just dropped their kids off at Cessna Elementary when gunfire erupted around 9:16 a.m. The woman was shot in the chest and ran toward the school seeking help.

"At the point that our deputy arrived, [the victim] had the gun pointing at her head, and the deputy took cover," Easter said at a news conference. "And then, when the suspect stepped a little bit away from our victim, the deputy shot the suspect."

The man was hospitalized in extreme critical condition, according to police. The woman was transported to the hospital with a "code red" injury, while her husband's wounds were classified as "code blue," Easter stated. 

Fortunately, no one else at the school was hurt. They locked down the school immediately after the incident.

"Law enforcement showed up within two minutes of the shooting coming out and it never got into the school itself," Easter said. "There was a district person here [and] a few kids that were outside. She saw the disturbance taking place in the street and so she got some of those kids inside that were coming to school." 

The couple had arrived at the school via a Lyft driver, who was later interviewed by police along with other witnesses.

No students or staff were injured in the incident, but many parents were anxious about the school being placed in lockdown. 

“Scares us to death because we don’t know what our son inside is doing or what he’s thinking or any other children that’s inside the school,” Mark Meeks, a parent, told KWCH.

The lockdown lasted for about an hour and many parents who returned to the school upon finding out about the incident made the choice to take their kids home for the day.

The names of those involved have yet to be made public.