Shawn Harris pleaded guilty to capital murder in the shooting death of Wyandotte County Deputy Elijah Ming.

The plea takes a death-penalty case off the trial track. The Kansas City Star reported prosecutors had said they would seek death if Harris were convicted at trial, and that they will now recommend life without parole. A gun count was dismissed. What is left is the December sentencing.

Shawn Harris, 39, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, to capital murder in the shooting death of Wyandotte County Sheriff's Deputy Elijah Ming, the Wyandotte County District Attorney's Office said, FOX4 KC, KCTV5 and KSHB reported. Ming was 34. The district attorney's office said the mandatory sentence on that count is life in prison without parole. Harris is due to be sentenced at 10 a.m. Dec. 18 in Division 13, KCTV5 reported. The Kansas City Star reported he had pleaded not guilty in July 2025.

The shooting was Saturday, July 26, 2025, in the 2600 block of South 30th Street in Kansas City, Kansas, KCTV5 reported, citing the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. FOX4 KC placed the home near South 30th Street and Shawnee Drive, in the Argentine neighborhood, which is how the Kansas City Star described the area. A woman had asked officers to go with her while she moved out because she was afraid for her safety, and she told investigators that Harris had threatened her with a gun when friends tried to help her move earlier, FOX4 KC and KSHB reported. She is not named in this account. Deputy Ming and a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer got there about 3:30 p.m. on what they were told was a civil standby, FOX4 KC reported. As they approached the front door, gunfire came from inside. The officer was not hit. Ming was, and he died at a hospital.

Harris then barricaded himself in the house. FOX4 KC reported he stayed inside for several hours, that officers and Harris exchanged gunfire, and that he was shot. KCTV5 reported the barricade lasted about an hour before he surrendered. The two stations do not agree on how long the standoff ran. Both reported he gave up and was taken to a hospital. FOX4 KC reported he was discharged the next day and booked into the Johnson County Detention Center. He was charged with capital murder and a felon-in-possession count. KSHB described that second count as criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. FOX4 KC called it criminal possession of a weapon by a felon.

The gun count was dismissed as part of Tuesday's plea, FOX4 KC, KCTV5 and KSHB reported. The Kansas City Star reported that the district attorney's office had said it would seek the death penalty if Harris were convicted at trial, and that District Attorney Mark Dupree's office will instead recommend the statutory sentence of life without parole. KCTV5, citing Kansas records, reported Harris had earlier convictions for theft in 2011, attempted aggravated battery in 2012 and aggravated battery in 2013, and that he spent much of the following 12 years in the Kansas Department of Corrections before that sentence expired in December 2024. Those are older cases.

Ming had been a Wyandotte County deputy for almost nine years, KCTV5 reported. KSHB reported he left a wife and a young son. Tuesday's plea is Harris's admission to the capital murder count. The judge has not yet imposed the sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.