<img src="http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/policeandfire.gif" border=0 > Authorities identify man they say died during traffic stop

March 11, 2008 12:52 am

— COLUMBUS, Kan. — The man who was found dead during a traffic stop Friday has been identified as 21-year-old Charles S. Sheppard, of Pleasanton, said Cherokee County Undersheriff Kent Soucy.
According to a news release issued Friday by Soucy, sheriff’s Deputy Chris Corbit at 1:05 a.m. Friday initiated a traffic stop for a vehicle with only one functioning headlamp. The vehicle gradually slowed and came to a stop in a ditch along Highway 69, about three-fourths of a mile south of Lawton Road.
Corbit found the driver, Sheppard, dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Sheppard was holding a shotgun when he was found.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Sheriff’s Department initiated an investigation. Soucy on Monday said a determination about the circumstances of Sheppard’s death was awaiting final autopsy results.