By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com
Published: Friday, February 19, 2010 9:20 PM CST
BROKEN BOW -- The man who shot and killed himself in the parking lot of a Broken Bow McDonald's was identified on Friday as 20-year-old Robert Lankford.
Lankford is a former Broken Bow resident who had been living in Kansas, according to a release from the Custer County attorney's office.
He kidnapped his ex-wife and a 1-year-old child Thursday morning and drove them to the McDonald's drive-through, according to the county attorney's office.
According to County Attorney Tami Schendt, Lankford released his ex-wife into the restaurant, where she called police. When he was confronted by police at about 5:30 a.m., he shot himself. He was taken by ambulance to Jennie M. Melham Memorial Medical Center in Broken Bow, where he was pronounced dead.
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Lankford's divorce from 19-year-old Eve Lankford was finalized in December in Custer County District Court, according to Amy Oxford, the court's clerk. It was filed in 2008.
Eve Lankford also filed a protection order in July 2008, around the time the divorce was filed, Oxford said. It was never served on Robert Lankford because he could not be located in either Broken Bow or Kansas.
In the petition for the protection order, Eve Lankford said she was three months pregnant and alleged that her husband threatened several times to kill her if he couldn't keep the baby.
District Court Judge Karin Noakes will convene a grand jury and has appointed Charles Brewster of Kearney as a special prosecutor in the case. State law requires a grand jury to be convened anytime someone dies with a law enforcement officer present.
An autopsy is scheduled to be conducted in Scottsbluff.
Brewster said a hearing must be scheduled within 30 days, barring an extension. He said the Broken Bow Police Department is cooperating with the Nebraska State Patrol's investigation of the case.
"The State Patrol is actively investigating it, and that's where the case ought to be at this point," Brewster said.
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