UPDATED: Double homicide in Lawrence leads to car chase; bond set at $1.5M for suspect; names of victims released

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

An officer is posted outside of a house on Tennessee Street. At 12:45 pm on Sunday July 31, 2022, after a double homicide.

4:30 p.m. UPDATE AUG. 1, 2022: During Marshall’s first court appearance on Monday, he was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder intentional and premeditated. He was charged with five counts of attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer. All seven of these charges are off grid felonies and could come with a life sentence. He was also charged with one count of attempted murder which is a level-one felony.

District Attorney Suzanne Valdez asked for a $2.5 million bond for Marshall. She said the case involved two deceased persons and multiple law enforcement victims and one civilian and that Marshall has a significant criminal history.

Judge Blake Glover appointed Marshall two defense attorneys, Michael Clarke and Carol Cline. Clarke said that $2.5 million dollars was unnecessarily high and that a $1 million bond would achieve the same result.

Glover set Marshall’s bond at $1.5 million and told Clarke he could ask the judge who would be hearing the case, Judge Amy Hanley, for any additional bond reduction.

Marshall attempted to speak during the first appearance and mentioned that someone related to the case needed to be subjected to a drug screen. Both Glover and Clarke told Marshall that this wasn’t the time to bring up the issue but Marshall insisted that time was a “critical” factor.

Marshall’s next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

He is currently being held at the Douglas County Jail.

4:10 p.m. UPDATE AUG. 1, 2022: A charging document filed in Douglas County District Court has identified the two victims in Sunday’s double homicide as William D. O’Brien, 43, of Lawrence, and Shelby McCoy, 52, of Lawrence.

UPDATE AUG. 1, 2022: A Douglas County District Court judge on Monday set bond at $1.5 million for Rodney Ericson Marshall, who was arrested in connection with the double homicide. Michael Clarke and Carol Cline were appointed as defense attorneys for Marshall, who is next scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

After a night of drama and bloodshed, a 51-year-old Lawrence man was arrested in Eudora on charges related to a double homicide in Lawrence.

Rodney Ericson Marshall was booked into the Douglas County Jail at 7:40 a.m. on Sunday. The booking log of the jail lists two counts of murder in the first degree and six counts of attempted murder in the first degree.

He was arrested in Eudora after leading local law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase, during which shots were fired at pursuing officers, according to a news release from Lawrence Police spokeswoman Laura McCabe.

The Lawrence Police Department first learned of the shootings at about 1 a.m. Sunday when officers responded to calls of gunfire in the 1100 block of Tennessee Street. Officers discovered a 53-year-old man critically wounded with gunshot wounds. The man was transported to a Kansas City metropolitan area trauma center where he was pronounced dead, McCabe said.

Soon after responding to the shooting, police responded to a call of gunfire in the 300 block of Northwood Lane, which is just east of McDonald Drive in the area near the Kansas Turnpike. McCabe said officers arrived to find a 43-year-old man dead from gunshot wounds.

Investigators identified Marshall as a suspect, located his vehicle and attempted a stop at about 6 a.m. in the 900 block of Lawrence Avenue. The suspect led officers on a chase through town to Haskell Avenue and eventually ended up on Kansas Highway 10 heading east, according to LPD. The suspect fired several times at officers while on K-10, McCabe wrote. A Eudora police officer was able to disable the vehicle with a spike strip on K-10.

“No officers were physically injured during the incident but we take their mental health very seriously and are proactively working to provide services to those directly involved,” McCabe said. “We will also work as a department and law enforcement family to identify anyone who wants to talk about it and access the professional services we have in place.”

Police are confident the suspect acted alone in the double homicide and that no other suspects remain at large, McCabe said in the release.

“This investigation involves multiple agencies, several locations, two victims and the attempted murder of several law enforcement officers,” McCabe states in the release. “In an effort to ensure all information is accurate in a fluid situation, we will not be providing further information right now … ”

A Sunday evening release from McCabe noted a heavy law enforcement presence in the 3400 block of Harvard, where multiple agencies were gathering evidence.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Police block off the 3400 block of Harvard Road just off of Kasold after a double homicide.

Records from the Kansas Department of Corrections show that a Rodney Ericson Marshall has multiple convictions in Clay County, including aggravated assault, drug possession, and criminal threat intending to terrorize.

According to the KDOC records, Marshall was last in state custody in 2016, in connection to multiple convictions in Clay County, some dating back as far as 2009.

The Kansas Department of Corrections had the following photo in its records of Marshall.

photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Rodney Ericson Marshall

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

An officer loads items into an unmarked car while other officers continue to search the home of a suspect in a double homicide in Lawrence on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

The road is closed at Fourth Street and Northwood Lane while forensic investigators work the scene of a homicide at 1:40 p.m. on Sunday, July 31, 2022.