KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation will be looking into how Roger Golubski, a retired Kansas City, Kansas, detective found dead on the morning of his criminal trial, obtained a firearm, a spokesperson for the state agency said Tuesday.

“We will look into how he obtained the firearm as a part of the death investigation,” agency spokesperson Melissa Underwood said in an email to The Kansas City Star on Tuesday.

Police officers found Golubski dead of an apparent suicide on the back porch of his Edwardsville home shortly after a resident called 911 and reported the sound of a gunshot. Local police requested the assistance of the KBI, which is now leading the death investigation.

The state agency has said no immediate signs of foul play were discovered.

At the time of his death, Golubski was supposed to be 52 miles away at the Frank Carlson Federal Building United States Courthouse in Topeka. An arrest warrant was issued when Golubski failed to appear on time. The court later dismissed his criminal case Monday morning upon learning of his death.

It remained unclear Monday how a firearm would be at the residence. As part of his court-ordered pretrial release, the former officer was banned from having a gun or weapon inside his residence.

The sudden death came as alleged victims, along with local and national activists, had long awaited the beginning of a trial for Golubski, widely viewed by reform-seekers as a poster child of corruption in Kansas City, Kansas. He served as an officer for the city between 1975 and 2010, left for a short stint with Edwardsville police, and retired in 2016.

Prosecutors alleged that Golubski tarnished the honorable profession of policing by committing heinous crimes — rape, kidnapping, protection of drug dealers and sex traffickers — while hiding behind his badge. The charges concerned his time as a homicide detective in Kansas City, Kansas, where Golubski became known for a vast network of informants and ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the coveted unit.

In the case that was to begin Monday, the former cop faced six felony charges alleging the deprivation of civil rights of two women he allegedly raped and kidnapped. Prosecutors brought the case against him on the word of two women who spoke to the FBI, saying Golubski raped them on occasions during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Golubski’s misdeeds and crimes were committed in broad daylight and most frequently against Black women, prosecutors alleged. He was accused of raping women, including one as young as 13 years old at the time of the abuse, in his patrol car, while threatening them and their families with death or the cudgel of the law.

That case stemmed from the first of two indictments Golubski faced. A second charged him with participating in a criminal conspiracy alongside three other co-defendants — including longtime drug kingpin Cecil Brooks — to run a sex trafficking ring at an apartment complex near 26th Street and Delavan Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas.

Serious allegations of criminal misconduct have hovered around Golubski for years. Many were first brought to light during a civil trial brought on behalf of Lamonte McIntyre, a 23-year prisoner freed in 2017 for a double murder he did not commit.

McIntyre, who was exonerated, accused Golubski of framing him for the slaying because Rose McIntyre, Lamonte’s mother, rejected the former police officer’s sexual advances. Several alleged victims have come forward with similar allegations of Golubski making such threats in recent years.

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