Two people are dead and one seriously injured after an apparent murder-suicide Friday night in Eudora.

Douglas County Dist. Atty. Jim Flory said at a brief news conference late Friday night that a 28-year-old Jefferson County man shot and killed his 24-year-old ex-wife and shot and injured Donald E. Harris, 25, Eudora, who was with the ex-wife at the time of the shooting.

Authorities this morning identified the suspect as Douglas W. Hawley and his ex-wife as Kimberly K. Hawley, Eudora.

Douglas Hawley was found about 2 miles from the scene in a rural area dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Flory said a shotgun of an unknown size was used in the shootings. Three shots were fired, Flory said.

HARRIS WAS taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and later to Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kan., where he was listed in serious condition this morning. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Eudora Police Department were called to the 700 block of Maple Street at 6:57 p.m.

Flory said an altercation initially between Hawley and his former wife preceded the shooting.

The incident occurred outside a house in the 700 block of Maple, Flory said. Harris and the former wife were in Harris’ pickup truck at the time of the shooting, Flory said.

Officials are saying little else about the incident pending the notification of relatives and further investigation.

But a neighbor who lives next door from where the shooting took place said Friday night that the shooting was the result of an ongoing dispute between the Hawleys.

Doris Douglass, a neighbor, said Harris and the Hawley woman had just dropped off the woman’s 8-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son at a babysitter next door when the shooting occurred.

DOUGLASS SAID she had just returned home from work and called next door, where her daughter also stays while she is at work.

Shortly after the call, she heard three shots, looked outside and saw the suspect running in front of Harris’ truck to his car. He got in the car and left the scene, she said.

The shooting stems from an ongoing child custody dispute between the suspect and his former wife, Douglass said. The babysitter next door told Douglass that Hawley stopped at her house several times trying to pick up the children.

Douglass said she was unsure what the three loud noises she heard were, although she said they sounded like gunfire.

“I really couldn’t believe it was a gun,” she said. “I thought, `what in the world is going on here.'”

Harris and the woman had just backed out of the babysitter’s driveway when the shooting occurred, Douglass said.

DOUGLASS SAID she and her neighbors were shocked at the shooting.

John Brown, 17, Douglass’ son, said he too had just returned home from work shortly after the shooting. He said he recently moved to Eudora from a big city and was surprised that the incident took place.

“I wouldn’t think something like this would happen here,” Brown said. “I just moved here from Fort Worth (Texas) last February. I didn’t think this could happen in Eudora.”

Flory said this morning that the investigation was continuing.

The incident marks the second shooting incident in the area in the last week. Last Saturday, Randall Lane Malbrough, 31, Oskaloosa, was shot and killed during a dispute outside the Leavenworth County Co-op mill just north of Oskaloosa.

Jefferson County authorities say the shooting was the result of an ongoing dispute between Malbrough and Gale W. Hewitt, 26, rural Valley Falls, who has been charged with the murder.

Hewitt is to appear at a preliminary hearing on the charge at 2 p.m. Nov. 3.