The children and step-children of Jason Whitson, who shot two Jewell Co. deputies Tuesday morning, have been placed in DCF custody according to Jewell Co. Attorney Darrell Miller in a report from WIBW in Topeka.
The children and an adult female were in the van with Whitson as he fled the scene in Jewell and refused to stop for Kansas Highway Patrol troopers who intercepted his vehicle near Glasco and followed him to an area south of Minneapolis. He stopped at one point to let them all out of the vehicle. All of the children and the adult female were unharmed.
Whitson was the biological father of the three youngest children, and step-father of the two older children. The children’s mother, Whitson’s ex-wife, is currently in jail.
Whitson had been working with the Jewell County Attorney’s Office to get full custody of all five children. All agencies had agreed he would get custody and, according to Miller, there was no custody dispute.
The big question on everyone’s mind is why Whitson was so upset to lash out the way he did on Tuesday morning unexpectedly and without warning. Many people, including members of the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department, were helping him through the custody process.
Whitson had been living in Mankato for three years or more, and he had no legal issues during that time. He had been employed at American Ag and Auto in Glen Elder for some time and was described as a hard worker.
The woman in the van with Whitson was described as a friend or acquaintance whose identity has not been disclosed.
