Man convicted in shooting that wounded Kansas tax agent

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 9:50 am, Friday, June 29, 2018

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who owed almost $400,000 in taxes has been convicted of walking into a tax office in Kansas and shooting and wounding a state tax agent who was working on his case.

The Wichita Eagle reports that 52-year-old Ricky Wirths was found guilty Thursday of attempted first-degree murder in the September 2017 shooting of agent Courtney Holloway. The shooting happened about three hours after Holloway and sheriff's deputies had gone to Wirths' house to seize assets.

Officials say Wirths asked for Holloway by name after he was buzzed into the waiting area of a Wichita tax office. While meeting with Holloway, Wirths pulled out a handgun and shot the agent multiple times. The owed money was related to a construction business Wirths owned.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 8.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Man-convicted-in-shooting-that-wounded-Kansas-tax-13037159.php

---

Ricky Wirths

[SunSeeker]

1. Amazing that his victim survived.

I guess every government building and media office needs metal detectors.

[Shipwack]

2. What a violent ignorant dumbass.

As if shooting an investigative agent is going to make the state government drop a case.

I am amazed at how anti-tax some people are. The ones I've met are generally right-wingers, though I suppose there are some lefties that oppose taxes too. The last person I talked to about it said that IRS agents are the real terrorists.

I asked him how basic government functions would get done, such as the military (I chose something that I knew he was supportive of). Who was going to maintain roads and highways, the asphalt fairies?

He replied that he was fine with roads being paved, and the military... He was just against all the other "waste". He never did answer how money would be raised or collected without taxes or the IRS, or what constituted "waste" in his eyes (though I'm sure we all here could make some good guess...).

[christx30]

5. There are tons of articles about

silly or wasteful uses of taxpayer money. And someone can be in favor of roads and the military and be against, for example, $5 million for a 3 week conference for the FAA, or any number of things that are beyond what you think the government should pay for.
I was pretty anti-tax at one point. When I was working 2 jobs, I was struggling. I couldn't afford basic things my family needed. I was fighting eviction every month, and wishing I could get hit by a car and die so I wouldn't have to do it any more.
At that point, I would do odd jobs around town, working under the table, getting paid in cash, so I could get food. I wasn't reporting it. I figured I was paying enough taxes between my 2 legit jobs, and anything extra was mine, because I earned it.
If the IRS came after me for that, I'd have seriously thought about doing something against the guy that had nothing better to do than go after a guy that was one mistake away from homelessness.
And if I owed $400,000 in taxes, there'd be no way in hell I'd be able to ever pay that off. Your life is pretty much over at that point. Might try to run, have some kind of life overseas in a non-extradition county and hope the taxing authority can't find you, or get your revenge at the person you see as coming after you. So he probably wasn't wanting the case to drop. "He's ruining my life, I'll end his."

[Bengus81]

3. Him or him and his family have/had a successful trucking business....

As in hauling dirt,rock,sand,asphalt for road projects in Wichita. The company has been around for decades. How much would you have to gross to OWE 400k?? Been simpler just to PAY your taxes like all of us have to do.

[MarcA]

4. After ex-gov brownback and the kochs amazed Kansas has tax agents.

May the agent fully recover and the perpetrator spend his life imprisoned.

[KevTucky]

6. If you owe 400k.

You have made a bunch of money.
Now that agent owns this guys company I bet.