Kansas City, Kansas, police have identified the 27-year-old man shot and killed by an officer Wednesday night as Manuel Palacio.
Officers were attempting to arrest Palacio during a narcotics investigation in the 2400 block of Wood Avenue, when Palacio — who police say was armed — confronted them.
According to the police department, the officer who shot Palacio is a 21-year veteran of the department. He has been placed on administrative leave while the department begins an internal investigation into the incident.
"I'm working with the family now to try and figure out what happened," said attorney Tom Porto. "Manuel was a family man. He meant a lot to his grandmother and his mother. They're not doing well."
Porto had previously represented Palacio in an excessive force lawsuit against the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department stemming from an incident four years to the date before he was killed.
While arresting Palacio on suspected robbery on May 2, 2014, dashboard camera footage shows officers beating, cursing, and threatening Palacio. He sued the department for the incident. In 2016, the city settled with him for $300,000. One of the officers involved, Shannon Hansen, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and served a month in Polk County Jail.
Porto said he can't speak for Palacio, and has no details on what happened Wednesday night between Palacio and the Kansas City, Kansas, officers.
"Once anybody has an experience like he did with the police in 2014, the rest of your experiences with police going forward are going to be affected by that," Porto told KCUR. "That's unfortunate. You don't want that to happen, to have one bad experience with the police and not trust them anymore. But I can imagine."
Andrea Tudhope is a reporter for KCUR 89.3. Email her at andreat@kcur.org, and follow her on Twitter @_tudhope.
