Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Thursday that no criminal charges will be filed against a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a woman after a high speed chase in 2019.
51-year-old Deborah Lee Arbuckle of Andover was shot by a deputy on December 30th, 2019 after a chase that began at Kellogg and Woodlawn and then went into southeast Wichita and into Butler County, then back into Sedgwick County. The chase ended near Mt. Vernon and Webb Road when a deputy used his patrol car to force Arbuckle’s car onto a curb. Deputies got out to confront the driver, but the car went into reverse, and one deputy believed it was going to hit other deputies on the scene. The deputy fired six shots into the passenger side of the vehicle.
Bennett said state law provides for immunity from prosecution in cases of self defense or defense of others. He said the deputy “fired his weapon to stop what he perceived to be a threat of bodily injury to himself and his fellow deputies.” He said under the circumstances established by the investigation into the chase and the shooting, the deputy is immune from prosecution.
