UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, December 7, 1994
CLOSED
Benevolent fugitive shot to death
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Minutes before an escaped federal prisoner was killed by police, he showed an unexpected side of his personality.
Michael Turner, a convicted bank robber who four times fled from federal custody, helped two security guards — while he was robbing them — by giving one her asthma inhaler and the other a raincoat.
"Except for waving a gun around, he wasn't threatening," said Roxanne Breitenstein, 55, a Wells Fargo guard at the Kansas City Power & Light Co. service center.
Turner, 38, who escaped from the U.S. Courthouse in Kansas City, Kan., Thursday evening, was shot to death by Kansas City police early Sunday near a church parking lot in north Kansas City.
Breitenstein unwittingly helped Turner escape Kansas City, Kan., where authorities had believed he was holed up. He climbed into her unlocked station wagon parked in front of her house in Kansas City, Kan., covered himself with clothes and fell asleep.
Breitenstein headed for work at the utility service center. It was only her third task at the job, she said, and she got lost trying to get there.
"He probably woke up when I started the car but didn't want to reveal
himself," Breitenstein said. "I looked up in the rear view mirror once and noticed that my coat looked like it was up higher on the seat than I left it. I didn't think anything of it."
When Breitenstein got to work, she packed about 20 feet from the guard house at the front gate. She got out, leaving her coat, purse and keys in her car.
Brietstein said she spent about five minutes in the guard house, talking to the guard she was to relieve. She identified him only as John.
"John said he saw something move in the car," Breitenstein said, and they walked to the car to investigate.
"Turner jumped over the back seat waving a gun," she said. "We realized right away who it was."
Turner, still wearing his orange jail trousers and blue sweatshirt, ordered the two guards into the guard house and demanded money, Breitenstein said.
Breitenstein had no money, but her co-worker gave Turner $25. Then Turner ordered the man to take off his pants. Turner put them on and gave the guard a raincoat to wear.
Turner, who had taken handcuffs when he fled the courthouse, cuffed the two guards behind their backs and ordered them into Breitenstein's car, where they sat for several minutes. she said.
"I asked him to get my water bottle from the guard house," Breitenstein said.
asthma attack, and Turner asked if he could help.
Turner eventually marched the guards into the empty office building and gave them chairs.
Breitenstein then began having an
"I began having an asthma attack again and he went to my car and got my purse and emptied it on the floor," Breitenstein said. "I told him my inhaler was in my medicine bag. He went back to the car and got it and helped me use it."
Turner also loosened one handcuff that she complained was hurting her, Breitenstein said.
Then he left in Breitenstein's car.
The guards eventually worked their way to a telephone and called police, who took Breitenstein to a hospital and then to a police station, where she rejoined her co-worker. By then, Turner was dead.
Clay County Medical Examiner Gerald B. Lee said Turner was struck by three pellets of heavy lead shot. The fatal pellet struck Turner in the lower right back, pierced his lung and severed an artery. Lee said.
Turner's escape followed an appearance in court Thursday to plead innocent to escaping in 1993 from the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth. He was on the loose for more than three weeks in that incident.
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