Police shootings

Legal settlements paid by the Kansas City Police Department for fatal shootings and other excessive force cases are among the reasons Chief Stacey Graves has called for “drastic” cuts. The mayor and city council will soon attempt to take back some control of the purse strings.

Officer Blayne Newton fatally shot three people and injured others over the course of his nine-year career with the Kansas City Police Department. KCPD called it an “agreed departure.”

In 2023, a Kansas City police officer shot and killed two people and injured a third, but he won’t face criminal charges. And that’s not the only legal settlement involving Blayne Newton. Hear about Newton’s conduct and how it has fanned the flames of tension in the community.

A 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Macklin Good had recently moved to Minnesota from Kansas City, Missouri. Protests erupted in Minneapolis on Wednesday after ICE agents fatally shot Good inside her car.

The Panasonic plant in De Soto, Kansas, shut down after officers shot a person suspected of stabbing another. The suspect is dead, and the stabbing victim was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

The Lenexa, Kansas Police Department uses a company called Force Science to train its officers on use of force tactics. But experts in law enforcement say the company's research doesn't stand up to scrutiny, and fuels an adversarial relationship between police and the public.

A Lenexa police officer shot and killed Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon while he was sitting inside a parked car at an apartment complex on June 22.

Joshua Rocha, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder by the same jury last week in the fatal shooting of Officer Daniel Vasquez. It is the first time Clay County prosecutors have asked for the death penalty since 1988.

Joshua Rocha, 28, admitted to police just hours after the 2022 killing of North Kansas City officer Daniel Vasquez that he decided he was going to shoot as soon as Vasquez started following his car. Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, said “he chose death.”

Missouri's system often takes years to resolve a misconduct allegation, in some cases allowing officers to move on to a new department. In one glaring example, former Kansas City detective Eric DeValkeneare took five years to surrender his license after being convicted for manslaughter.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court says two Independence police officers acted with malice and were reckless when they killed Maria Pike, 34 and her two-month-old baby Destinii Hope.

Lenexa Police officers fatally shot 25-year-old Grandview resident Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon on June 22, after responding to a 911 call at an apartment complex. His friends and family members have demanded to see officer body cam footage.