Type of Officer: Deputy Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Clay County
County: Clay
Death Date: 11/16/1999
Added to Memorial: 2000
Circumstances of Death: Gunshot
On the afternoon of November 16, 1999, Clay County Deputy Sheriff James R. “Monk” Kenney approached the Morganville residence of an escaped inmate with other officers seeking to serve a search warrant. The officers were attempting to locate an escapee from the Cloud County Jail in Concordia. During the effort to execute the warrant, the suspect shot and killed Deputy Kenney. The deputy’s police dog, Copper, also was killed in the incident. The suspect was apprehended after the shooting and charged with capital murder. A six-year veteran of the Clay County Sheriff’s Department, the sixty-two-year-old Deputy Kenney had established the department’s canine unit. He had served with the Arkansas City and Wichita Police Department earlier in his career. He is survived by his wife Shirley Thompson; son Robert Kenney; daughters Julie Page and Suzanne Shields; stepson Dennis Pickering; and stepdaughters Christi Sanders, Cathy Weaver, and Wendi Holt.
Panel: 2