photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart and another member of the LPD enter Lawrence City Hall on the morning of Jan. 5, 2026.

While it is known a City of Lawrence employee shot and killed an intruder inside City Hall on Monday, what hasn’t been released is what type of employee was carrying a gun inside the public building.

The City of Lawrence’s employee handbook provides some possibilities.

The city — taking its cue from state law — has a policy that allows any city employee to legally carry a concealed weapon while on duty for the city, as long as the employee follows a host of regulations. Such employees would be carrying a weapon in their individual capacity, and not as part of their city job duties.

In that regard, nearly any city employee could have been armed inside Lawrence City Hall when the incident occurred near the building’s opening at 8 a.m.

But the employee handbook also spells out three types of city employees who are allowed to openly carry firearms as part of their duties with the city: Police officers, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical fire investigators and court security officers.

The first floor of City Hall is home to Municipal Court, where everything from speeding tickets to criminal misdemeanors are adjudicated. Municipal Court was scheduled to be in session on Monday morning, and the court historically has had a security officer as part of its operations.

However, no information has been released on whether a court security officer was involved in Monday’s incident. The Journal-World has reached out to a Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman seeking more information about the type of employee who was involved in the incident, but has not yet received additional information.

The police department has released that two city employees were in the building and were carrying firearms. One of the two employees fatally shot a 28-year-old man from Minnesota, according to Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart.

The man, according to accounts from city officials who briefed the media, had forced his way into the building, then broke through a door on the fourth floor, a secure area that is not open to the public. That intrusion alerted employees to the man’s presence.

City employees attempted to remove the man and a “fight” began, Lockhart said. The man was then fatally shot.

In a press release, the Lawrence Police Department said the city employee who shot the intruder was “authorized and trained to carry a firearm within the building.” The release didn’t provide further details about how the employee was authorized to carry a firearm within the building.

The City of Lawrence has had an administrative policy in place since 2016 that addresses how an employee can carry a concealed firearm while working for the city. The policy cites the state’s 2006 Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act, which lets legally qualified public employees carry a concealed handgun while on duty.

The policy, though, establishes several requirements and expectations of employees who choose to carry a concealed handgun while working for the city. The policy specifically states that carrying a handgun — except for the police, fire investigator and court security positions — is “not within the course and scope of city employment.”

That is a key phrase because it means the city is not required to defend any employee who is sued as a result of carrying a handgun while on city duty.

“Any liability associated with the employee’s decision to carry a concealed handgun will be of a personal nature and will not be defended by the City since the carrying of a concealed handgun is outside the scope of City employment and not part of the employee’s duties,” the policy reads.

The policy applies not only to Lawrence City Hall, but to all pieces of city property, including city vehicles. The policy requires any employees who are carrying a concealed handgun to keep the gun on their person at all times. It cannot be left unattended on a desk or workstation, or other such storage container in a city building. The policy does allow an employee to leave the handgun in a city vehicle, as long as the handgun is secured within a gun locker that is out of plain view.

Just like state law allows public employees to carry concealed handguns, state law also allows the general public to carry a concealed handgun in most state and city government buildings. State statute 75-7c-20 says carrying a concealed handgun “shall not be prohibited in any public area of any state or municipal building unless such public area has adequate security measures.”

The law generally defines adequate security measures as metal detectors that can scan every person entering a building to determine if they are carrying a weapon. Some public buildings in Lawrence — such as Douglas County’s Judicial and Law Enforcement Center where criminal trials are held — do have those metal detectors in place.

City Hall does not have such metal detectors in place, and thus is a building where concealed carry is allowed. The city does prohibit the open carrying of firearms in the building, meaning it is illegal for a member of the public to enter the building with a weapon plainly visible.