NEWTON – Harvey County Officials have now released the name of the man who shot himself in front of law enforcement officers Christmas Eve. He has been identified as 53 year old Marcus Vonfeldt of Wichita.

Vonfeldt died of self inflicted gun shot wound and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p-m, at the scene of the 600 block of SE 84th in Harvey County.

It was just after 5:00 p-m, Monday, a Harvey County Sheriff Deputy was checking on a suspicious vehicle at that location.

The vehicle was a Black Ford Ranger pick-up parked in a field entrance. The deputy approached the vehicle where he could see a white male inside. As he was approaching the vehicle, he heard what he believed to be a single gunshot and saw the occupant “Slump over” in the seat.

The deputy backed away from the vehicle and began giving commands for the man to exit the vehicle. Back-up officers arrived and they continued to give the man commands.

After nearly an hour, Vonfeldt exited his vehicle with a handgun pointed at his chest. Officers again gave him numerous commands to drop his weapon. He started to walk away from the officers into a field, turned and shot himself in the chest with a .45 caliber handgun. A snub-nosed revolver was also found in his pocket. Officers did not fire any rounds at him.

There was no information given for the possible motive into the shooting.