This was another article from The Wichita Eagle.  I bolded several important points.

Armed customer killed 16-year-old armed robbery suspect at Wichita gas station, police say

The suspect in an armed robbery who was shot in the head by a customer at a south Wichita gas station died at the hospital, police said.

Wichita police did not identify the person who was killed, but said in a Saturday news release that he was a 16-year-old male. The customer who shot him has not been arrested.

Police have not said whether the 16-year-old was armed when he was shot. The man who shot him was robbed before he opened fire, Lt. Chris Halloran said. It’s unclear how many shots he fired.

Those details are expected to emerge from a full investigation, police said. Twenty-four hours after the shooting, the store remained closed as detectives worked to piece together evidence at the crime scene — of both the robbery and the shooting.

Here’s what police have said so far: Around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, police were called to a shooting at B and H Fast Trips, 2796 S. Seneca, a gas station and convenience store near 26th and Seneca in south Wichita. Four people had “entered the store, pointed handguns at an employee and customers, and demanded money,” Wichita police said in a news release.

The robbers took money and cigarettes, police said.

The 16-year-old was shot by a 42-year-old male customer who pulled his gun and fired multiple shots at the alleged robbers. The other three suspects fled the store, police said.

To bullet point the relevant facts:

• The dead person is 16
• The shooter is 42
• The dead person was part of a group engaged in armed robbery
• At least a couple of people in the group had guns
• The shooter fired at the robbers in general

This is what I found on the internet for felony murder in the state of Kansas:

In the state of Kansas, the common law felony murder rule has been codified in K.S.A. 21-3401. The statute defines first degree murder as, among other things, homicide in the commission of, attempt to commit, or escape from an inherently dangerous felony. Inherently dangerous felonies are defined in K.S.A. 21-3436 and include armed robbery, arson, and aggravated burglary.

Forthermore Felony Murder Rule is a legal concept that:

[A]llows a defendant to be charged with first-degree murder for a killing that occurs during a dangerous felony, even if the defendant is not the killer. The felony murder rule applies only to those crimes that are considered “inherently dangerous,” as the rationale underlying the felony murder rule is that certain crimes are so dangerous that society wants to deter individuals from engaging in them altogether. Thus, when a person participates in an inherently dangerous crime, he or she may be held responsible for the fatal consequences of that crime, even if someone else caused the actual death.

The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide. Normally, a defendant can be convicted of murder only if a prosecutor shows that the defendant acted with the intent to kill or with a reckless indifference to human life. Under the felony murder rule, however, a defendant can be convicted of murder even if the defendant did not act with intent or a reckless indifference; the prosecution must show only that the defendant participated in a felony where fatalities occurred.

I am not a lawyer, so I am curious how if it turns out that the 16 year old didn’t have a gun, since he was part of a group that did, the shooter is still protected because he was part of a conspiracy to commit an inherently dangerous felony.  I’m guessing yes.

It would also seem that the other people involved in the robbery would be charged with the death of their 16 year old accomplice.

Most importantly here, the person who died was 16.  I’m going to go out on a limb and think that the others in the group were probably the same age or close to it.  A bullet fired by a kid is just as lethal as one fired by an adult, so the protections – as well as morality – should apply here, regardless of the potential for this to turn into a media circus.

I’ve said it before, you never know what the bad guy is going to be until they point a gun at you.  It could be a adult male, it could be a teenage girl, it could be any variation there-of.  You need to be prepared to react regardless.

I’m going to follow The Wichita Eagle for a little bit to see what this case evolves into.