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Man shot during Leavenworth police standoff pleads guilty to assaulting officers

Donald Sidney Barden Jr., a 32-year-old man shot by Leavenworth police while he was armed with a gun, has pleaded guilty to felonies related to a standoff that left him severely injured in February, the county’s top prosecutor said Friday.

Barden was convicted Friday on two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, plus three property crimes, according to the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office. He faces sentencing on Oct. 28.

Authorities say Barden was engaged in an armed encounter with officers from the Lansing and Leavenworth police departments on Feb. 13. Police were called in the early morning hours to investigate a report of a man with a gun near Fifth and Seneca streets in Leavenworth.

Attempts were made by police to diffuse the situation peacefully, prosecutors said, until Barden raised a handgun toward the responding officers.

Prosecutors said the officers had no choice but to shoot Barden. He was struck several times, including once in the groin, and taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Investigators later found that the gun was not loaded. Barden was provided emergency medical attention by police after the standoff and then treated at the University of Kansas hospital. He recovered from his wounds, prosecutors said.

In addition to admitting he assaulted police officers, Barden also pleaded guilty to burglarizing a house and trying to steal a car on Feb. 11.

In a statement on Friday, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said “having a gun pointed at them is the biggest fear officers have when they go to work.”