Woman charged with murder of Kansas officer in car chase and shootout

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A Tennessee woman was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday in connection with the killing of a police officer in suburban Kansas City after a car chase ended in a shootout that also killed the fleeing vehicle’s driver.

Andrea Rene Cothran, 32, Goodlettsville, was already charged with crimes stemming from the Aug. 6 police chase, the Johnson County prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Those include aggravated battery, fleeing law enforcement, felony theft and reckless driving.

The earlier charges all pertain to the police chase, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe told the Kansas City Star earlier this month. He said the battery charge is related to the start of the chase, using the vehicle as a deadly weapon. Her bond was set at $1 million.

Fairway police Officer Jonah Oswald, 29, had been on the force for four years. He was hospitalized in critical condition and died a few days later. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

Police in the nearby suburb of Lenexa, Kansas, say the episode began when the suspected driver, Shannon Wayne Marshall of Ashland City, Tennessee, fled from police in what officers believed was a stolen car. When officers initially found the vehicle, police said the driver struck a patrol car.

Marshall drove along Interstate 35 to a QuikTrip store in Mission, another suburb, where police from multiple agencies tried to arrest him. Gunfire broke out and Marshall was killed.

A Johnson County law enforcement team that is charged with reviewing officer-involved shootings is investigating.