BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Kansas undersheriff in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man with a homemade beanbag round out of his personal shotgun, a case that comes amid a national reckoning on police violence.
Virgil Brewer, who was with the Barber County Sheriff’s Office at the time, is facing a charge of reckless involuntary manslaughter for his deadly encounter with Steven Myers on Oct. 6, 2017. The shooting occurred in Sun City, a rural area about 300 miles (555 kilometers) from Kansas City, Kansas.
A civil lawsuit brought by Myers’ family against Brewer and then-Barber County Sheriff Lonnie Small was settled in 2020 after county officials agreed to pay $3.5 million.
Brewer’s criminal trial is expected to focus on whether his lack of knowledge and training with the less-lethal munitions amounted to a crime.
Defense attorney David Harger did not respond to messages seeking comment on the case. Brewer has been on unpaid leave since his 2018 arrest. He has been free pending trial.
“The fact of the matter is that it is not going to be a good outcome for anybody, no matter whether or not he gets convicted,” Steven Myers’ widow, Kristina Myers, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Yes, it will be over in that sense, but this one bad decision has ruined the lives of so many people.”
On the evening of Oct. 6, 2017, Brewer was carrying his personal weapon when he, along with the sheriff and a sheriff’s deputy, responded to a call about a man holding a rifle on a street after an altercation at a local bar.
About five minutes before the fatal shooting, Small said: “A little luck and he’ll just pass out and die,” a remark captured on the sheriff’s body camera as they searched for Myers. They eventually found him hiding in a shed.
