Ark Valley News - Calls for police end fatally in Park City

Calls for police end fatally in Park City
By Matt Heilman
Last Updated: May 09, 2013

Two men are dead following a busy two-day stretch for law enforcement authorities in Park City. Two incidents about 24 hours apart ended fatally.

The first was reported shortly before 9 p.m. May 3 when a Denver man visiting a friend in Park City was accidentally shot in the 1600 block of East Gary Drive.

The Denver man, identified as 36-year-old Eloy Portillo-Meza, died during surgery at Wesley Medical Center, about three hours after he was reported to have been shot.

Park City Police Chief Phil Bostian said Portillo-Meza and his friend had a conversation about guns that led to the friend showing him his .22 Magnum revolver.

Bostian said the friend took the gun apart and thought he had completely unloaded it, but there was still a round in the cylinder. The gun went off and one bullet hit Portillo-Meza in the stomach. The friend called 911 and Portillo-Meza was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead about 12:15 a.m.

In the second incident, a 30-year-old Ark City man drowned in a retention pond in Park City's High Ridge addition after abandoning his vehicle in a retreat from Wichita police. At a May 6 media briefing, the Ark City man was identified as Jeremy D. Horton.

Wichita Police Capt. Brent Allred said a call for police came in about 9:15 p.m. May 4 from the Rusty Eck Ford dealership in the 7300 block of East Kellogg. Horton reportedly entered the business and behaved bizarrely, Allred said.

Horton allegedly acted as if he was going to pull out a knife clipped to his belt and drove away in his vehicle when approached by police. A chase ensued for several miles before Wichita police deployed spike strips at about 53rd North and Hydraulic.

Horton drove for about two more miles north before he left his vehicle and ran into the retention pond just south of 69th North and Hydraulic. Bostian said Horton went underwater and did not resurface. The Sedgwick County Fire Department assisted at the scene. Divers located the suspect about 45 minutes after he went into the water, Allred said.

Horton was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after being pulled from the water.

Police are unsure why the man fled.