KCK police embrace plan to use slain detective’s handcuffs on defendant

Chris Blake doesn’t know whose idea it was, but the Kansas City, Kan., police officer thinks it is a good one.

When the man accused of killing Detective Brad Lancaster, one of Blake’s best friends, is taken from the hospital to jail, he will be restrained with Lancaster’s handcuffs.

“It’s both satisfying and tearing at my heartstrings a little bit to know that Brad won’t be using them anymore,” Blake said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Curtis Ayers, who turned 29 on Thursday, has been hospitalized since May 9, when he was shot by a Kansas City police officer several hours after Lancaster was fatally shot near Kansas Speedway.

Ayers is charged in Wyandotte County District Court with capital murder in the killing of the detective.

He also is charged in Jackson and Leavenworth counties with crimes stemming from a daylong series of robberies and carjackings that occurred after Lancaster was shot.

Blake said Thursday that he was at Lancaster’s house with his widow when another officer called and asked if they could get the handcuffs.

“She was pretty excited about it,” he said.

Blake got the cuffs from Lancaster’s duty belt and later gave them to another officer. They have been turned over to Kansas City police, who will take Ayers into custody whenever he is released from the hospital.

“I think it really means that we are all standing together,” Blake said of the across-the-state-line cooperation. “I hope the whole community is behind it.”

Blake was joined at Thursday’s news conference by fellow Kansas City, Kan., officer Tom Tomasic, who said that while many officers would jump at the chance to be the one to put the cuffs on Ayers, things need to be done “properly and legally.”

Tomasic called the idea of using Lancaster’s handcuffs a “great gesture.”

“Let’s let Brad finish what he started,” Tomasic said. “and finish his last arrest.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "KCK police embrace plan to use slain detective’s handcuffs on defendant."