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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man who was shot to death on Sunday after shooting three Kansas City police officers had an extensive criminal background and a reputation for violence in Oklahoma that started when he was a teenager, according to a police detective who investigated him at the time.
Marlin James Mack Jr. was first arrested in Tulsa when he was 15 for breaking into cars and was later arrested for taking a gun to school. When he was 17, Mack was sentenced to prison for robbing a woman at gunpoint in front of her three children while he was on the Tulsa's police department's list of most wanted robbers, according to court records.
"At age 17 he was pretty much a liar and misfit extraordinaire," Tulsa police Sgt. David Walker, who as a robbery detective interviewed Mack in 2011, told The Kansas City Star.
Mack pleaded guilty in November 2011 to second-degree robbery, possession of a firearm as a juvenile and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He was released from prison on March 19, 2015, but returned to prison seven months later for carrying a firearm despite being a felon. He was released on Feb. 6, 2017.
Mack had no criminal history in Missouri and Kansas. He had not come to the attention of Kansas City police until he became a person of interest in the July 7 shooting death of a 25-year-old Sharath Koppu during a robbery at a restaurant, Police Chief Rick Smith said Monday .
Law enforcement officers found Mack Sunday at a motel in east Kansas City. Two detectives were injured during a gunfight at the motel before Mack fled. He eventually holed up at a nearby home where another gun battle between Mack and police broke out. A third officer was shot, and Mack was killed.
Walker said Mack's father, Marlin James Mack, is serving a life sentence for shooting two people in the head in 2000. The elder Mack also was arrested for trafficking hundreds of pounds in marijuana and was alleged to be a co-conspirator with a Tulsa kingpin who was the subject of a major federal case, Walker said.
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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
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