© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Hundreds Of Mourners Drive By To Remember Slain Overland Park Police Officer

Mourners for slain Overland Park Police officer Mike Mosher gave their respects at a visitation where concerns about the spread of coronavirus kept people in their cars.
Frank Morris
/
KCUR 89.3
Mourners for slain Overland Park Police officer Mike Mosher gave their respects at a visitation where concerns about the spread of coronavirus kept people in their cars.

Mike Mosher died in an off-duty gun battle with a hit-and-run driver in early May. Concerns about spreading coronavirus limited his visitation to a drive-by event on Tuesday.

Hundreds drove slowly past the open coffin of Overland Park officer Mike Mosher Tuesday afternoon, some weeping and some saluting.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies stood guard on the coffin of the 15-year department veteran who was killed May 4. With the threat of the spreading coronavirus, mourners were limited to driving by the visitation.

Mike Mosher
Overland Park Police Department
Mike Mosher

Mosher died in a gun battle with a hit-and-run driver. That driver, Phillip Carney, also died in the shootout.

Mosher was off duty at the time, but he followed the driver after witnessing the accident. Mosher radioed for help and told dispatchers that the suspect had parked and then got out of his vehicle to confront the officer. Then gunshots crackled across the police radio, and witnesses started calling the police department with reports of an officer down.

Slain Overland Park Police officer Mike Mosher's drive-by visitation drew hundreds of mourners.
Frank Morris
/
KCUR 89.3
Slain Overland Park Police officer Mike Mosher's drive-by visitation drew hundreds of mourners.

“He was proud to be a police officer,” Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez said in a statement. “He loved what he did and he was damn good at it.”

Mosher was the second Overland Park police officer killed in the line of duty, and the first since 1985.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and award-winning podcasts.
Your donation helps keep nonprofit journalism free and available for everyone.