Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an earlier article.
An attempt to serve a warrant at an Iola residence ended with a man’s death from a self-inflicted gunshot.
The incident lasted several hours and multiple agencies were called to assist.
The Iola Police Department was notified Tuesday evening by Douglas County that Chase Bishop, age 22, was believed to be residing at a home in the 800 block of East Jackson Avenue, Iola Police Chief Jared Warner said Wednesday morning. Bishop had warrants for two charges of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
Officers were warned Bishop may have been armed, Warner said. Officials later recovered two pistols.
Officers arrived at the house at 6:30 p.m. and were met by Bishop’s brother, Gage Collins, age 24, who confirmed the subject was in the house. Warner said Collins did not cooperate and was arrested on suspicion of interference with law enforcement and defacing identification marks on a firearm.
Officers were attempting to make contact with Bishop when they heard what sounded like a gunshot at 7:06 p.m. Officers backed away from the home, contacted the Kansas Highway Patrol’s Special Reaction Team and held the perimeter until the team arrived. The team entered the house several hours later and found Bishop dead from a single gunshot wound.
The police presence in the neighborhood, which is east of Iola Middle School, drew a large crowd of neighbors and passers-by.
Wendy Vest, who lives in Eastgate Apartments to the south, said she and her spouse saw the incident unfold starting around 10 p.m. when they took their dog outside. Officers set up a staging area in the parking lot at G&W Foods, a grocery store adjacent to the apartment complex.
“We noticed G&W was swarmed with Kansas Highway Patrol cars and officers and they were putting on tactical gear. They then loaded into a tactical truck and headed across the street to the block north of our apartment. They kept announcing on speaker for the person to surrender, that they have a warrant for their arrest, and they have their house surrounded,” Vest recalled. “They had officers on top of the house next door to the west of the house at one point.”
About every 10 minutes until around 1:15 a.m., officers called for the subject to surrender, she said.
Officers cleared the scene at 2:34 a.m., Warner said.
