Man who killed a Clinton officer was 'scared,' haunted by prison, daughter says
Growing up, Lakeviona Waters lost track of the number of times her father got locked up.
"I kind of just stopped counting," said the 19-year-old from Independence. "I just tried to count the good times we had."
James E. Waters, 37, was incarcerated for the majority of his daughter's life, she said. After his most recent release from prison, in August, he looked his daughter "dead in the eyes" and said he'd never go back.
The trauma of being incarcerated, his daughter said, fueled a fear of police and imprisonment. It's why, she believes, Waters fired on three Clinton police officers Tuesday about 9:30 p.m. as they entered the house where he was living.
Officer Christopher Ryan Morton, 30, was shot and killed and two other officers were injured. Waters was found dead after an hours-long gun battle that finally ended shortly after midnight Wednesday.
"That wasn't him, it was something deeper than that that I can't explain myself," Lakeviona Waters said when reached by The Star Wednesday. "It's something you get when you're locked up for so long, and you're not used to being out."
Clinton police had sought Waters in connection to a rape investigation; they had gone to the scene of the devastating shooting earlier that same day searching for him.
But police did not have an accurate report late Tuesday when they again went to the house in the 300 block of Grandriver.
The 911 call the three officers thought they were responding to actually came from a caller about 20 miles away, in Windsor, Mo., the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
It's unclear if the wrong address was given to the officers as a result of human error or a faulty computer system.
"My dad didn't do anything wrong for them to come at him. But again, it's the police ... he's paranoid," Lakeviona Waters said.
Waters barricaded himself inside the residence and exchanged gunfire with a swarm of at least 50 responding officers. Police pleaded with Waters to "please let us get our wounded officer out."
Waters, toting what an officer on the scene described as an assault-style rifle, never surrendered. It remains unclear if he took his own life or was killed by police.
Officer Nathan Bettencourt is recovering from gunshot wounds and surgery at a Kansas City area hospital in stable condition. Officer Nicholas Kasper was also was treated for gunshot wounds and released from Golden Valley Hospital on Wednesday.
Another Clinton officer, Gary Michael, was shot dead during a traffic stop just seven months ago, and Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said Morton had filled the post of his fallen colleague.
"The world has lost a great soldier and even a better person," said Matthew Hografe, who wrote in a Facebook post he had deployed with Morton four years ago. "You will never be forgotten."
Lakeviona Waters said she wishes she could apologize to Morton's family for her father's actions.
"But I need them to understand that my dad's human, too," she said.
She also wishes she could have spoken to him during the mayhem. Maybe then she "could have stopped it."
Waters' mother, who also lives in Clinton, called police and asked if she could go into the bullet-torn residence, Lakeviona Waters said, but they told her no.
Waters had run-ins with law enforcement dating back to 1999, court records show. He was facing new charges in Cass County after an arrest in November for alleged possession of a firearm, meth and marijuana. About a week after his arrest, he posted bond.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Lakeviona Waters has seen what she believes are racially motivated comments. Some have written her father deserved to die, and that if he killed himself, he was a coward.
She said there is a stark contrast in how people have responded to her father's crimes versus responses to white people shooting up schools.
"The guy who shot up a school, they said he had a mental illness," she said. "Well guess what? My dad has an illness, too."
Payton Parks, James Waters' uncle, said Waters was engaged to a woman living in St. Joseph. Since his release from prison, he'd been working odd jobs, mainly in construction, "trying to get back on his feet."
Lakeviona Waters said she'd been trying to form a closer bond with her father since his release.
"I lost my dad again, but this time's forever," she said. "I'm pregnant, and I didn't even get a chance to tell him."
Her baby is due between her birthday and her father's, in September.
"I think my dad was scared," she said. "He didn't know how to live in the world alone."
This story was originally published March 8, 2018 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Man who killed a Clinton officer was 'scared,' haunted by prison, daughter says."