Wichita Tax Agent Shot: Suspect Owed Nearly $200K In Unpaid Taxes

WICHITA, KS — The Wichita man suspected of shooting of a Kansas Department of Revenue worker in Wichita owed nearly $200,000 in unpaid taxes and was under investigation by the agency, police and records said.

Ricky Todd Wirths, 51, walked into the taxation side of the Wichita office Tuesday afternoon and asked to see Cortney Holloway, a tax seizure agent, Wichita police Officer Charley Davidson said. The two men were talking about his case when Wirths pulled out a gun and shot Holloway, Davidson said at a news conference Wednesday.

Holloway, 35, was in stable condition Wednesday. He works in the tax compliance division, where employees often are required to seize property to pay back taxes. The Revenue Department had issued a tax warrant in June showing Wirths owed $196,455.36 for four tax periods spanning 2012 to 2015. (For more information on the state employee shooting and other Wichita stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Wirths was jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder and was jailed without bond.

He was arrested about half an hour after the shooting, police Sgt. Chad Beard said. He was stopped by law enforcement officers down the street from his house. Revenue Department employees and deputies from the Sedgwick County sheriff's Civil Section had gone to a residence in the area earlier while investigating the suspect.

Dave Hiegel, who said he has known Wirths for 22 years, said his friend did dirt work with his father, installed windows for a few years and most recently had done parking lot and pavement sealing, The Wichita Eagle reported.

"I guess he was losing everything," Hiegel said. "That would be hard to swallow."

Robert Choromanski, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, said workers who were in the office at the time of the shooting described the scene to him. He said there were bullet holes in cubicle walls and that employees were badly shaken. He said there was no security for workers inside the facility and that they had complained about that to management.

"There's nobody to screen you to see if you have any weapons on you," Choromanski said. "There's no metal detector, nothing. You just walk in."

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said in a statement that Holloway was "doing his job" and asked the public to pray for him and his family.

Statement from Gov. Brownback on today's shooting at the Dept. of Revenue: pic.twitter.com/vNVAyd7B7t
— Nichole Manna (@NicholeManna) September 19, 2017

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

Photo credit: Fernando Salazar /The Wichita Eagle via AP