OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The Overland Park Police Department says that a 19-year-old male suspect has been apprehended in the murder of Steve Sawyer. Sawyer, 49, was warming up his car at about 6 a.m. on New Year’s Eve when he was shot to death.
The police department says the arrest was made on Wednesday afternoon in south Kansas City with the help of the U.S. Marshals Kansas Fugitive Task Force, and marshals from Kansas City, Mo. The suspect awaits formal charges in Johnson County.
Fox 4’s Abby Eden talked to Denise Thompson, Sawyer’s long-time girlfriend. She said she’s relieved Overland Park police made an arrest in his murder.
“I am so glad that he is off the street so he won’t terrorize any other neighborhoods or any person, because no family wants to go through what our family and his family went through because it was such a nightmare,” Thompson said.
Thompson explained she also wants to know what the person was thinking who killed her long-time love.
“How could you? How could you do that to any life? He was somebody’s brother, he was somebody’s friend, he was somebody’s dad,” she said.
Witnesses told police that they heard four-to-six shots fired and neighbors heard yelling before the shooter fled the scene. Sawyer’s car was still running when police arrived to his home on West 83rd Terrace near Kessler.
FOX 4 will continue to follow developments with this story and will identify the suspect once he’s been formally charged.
