Man upset about KCPD officer’s indictment tries to break door at prosecutor’s office
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker closed her offices at the downtown courthouse Friday morning after a man, who said he was upset that a grand jury indicted a Kansas City police detective, showed up screaming and yelling and tried to break into an office door.
No one was harmed and Jackson County sheriff’s deputies removed the man from the courthouse, said Michael Mansur, a spokesman for Baker. The man was not arrested.
The incident was reported around 8 a.m. when workers noticed that the man was using his phone to record video of entrances to the three prosecutor’s offices inside of the courthouse at 415 E. 12th St.
It is unclear if the man tried to enter those offices. He eventually made his way to the 11th floor and pounded on the glass door that led into several offices, Mansur said.
“We want to ensure that our employees are safe. We did this out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
Workers were concerned that the man was going to break down the door. The man, whose name was not released, said that he would return with 100 or more veterans to protest. Staff members were instructed to work from home.
Mansur said it was clear the man was upset that a Jackson County grand jury indicted a police detective in the 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb, 26, who was shot while sitting in his pickup truck in his own backyard.
Eric J. DeValkenaere, 41, was charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the Dec. 3 killing that happened in the 4100 block of College Avenue.
The police department said that DeValkenaere has been an officer since September 1999 and was assigned to the investigative bureau. He has been suspended.
In announcing the criminal indictment, Baker said her office was “stymied” by the Kansas City Police Department when it didn’t hand over the probable cause statement in the shooting.
“I wanted to more quickly reach a decision in this case,” she said.
Baker said her office requested a probable cause statement from police two months after the shooting but did not receive one. She then wrote a letter formally requesting the document but it was not given to her.
Baker said she was told in later meetings with police that her actions “would greatly harm the department’s morale.”
On Thursday, Baker said she decided to present the case grand jury after her office did not receive the probable cause statement from the police department.
“We are living in really troubled times. Emotions are high,” she said. “I view this moment as consequential as necessary, we need to be here. “
According to police, the shooting happened after an officer went to investigate a disturbance between two vehicles on the road. A police helicopter tracked one of the vehicles as it pulled behind a home on College Avenue.
Detectives approached a man in the vehicle and “the officer was put in a position where he had to discharge his firearm,” a police department spokesman previously said.
Police investigating the shooting found Lamb inside the vehicle with his left arm and head hanging out of the driver’s side window. On the ground near his left hand was a handgun, according to police.
Lamb’s family said they questioned the police’s version of what happened. His father, Bobby Lamb, said his son was not the type of man to act the way police alleged he had.
An attorney for the family said police were on Lamb’s property illegally and recklessly pursued a nonviolent traffic offender.
The police department was criticized after it withheld a probable cause statement sought by the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office while it was considering filing charges against the detective.
According to court records, DeValkenaere and another detective, Troy Schwalm, were in the area when they responded to radio dispatches regarding a traffic incident.
Schwalm arrived first but did not stop to ask any questions of a resident, who was on the porch. He exited his vehicle, drew his gun and walked to the backyard.
Prosecutors allege the detectives, who were in plainclothes, did not ask for permission to walk onto the property. Prosecutors said the detectives did not have a warrant.
Instead, DeValkenaere, who had a handgun, asked the resident about who was in the backyard. Schwalm went up the driveway on the south side of the house and encountered a man, not Lamb, in the backyard near several vehicles.
Lamb had backed his pickup into the garage while DeValkenaere positioned himself on the other side of the house.
The detective then went to the backyard and then to the garage and knocked over a barbecue grill and the hood of a car, according to prosecutors. Schwalm told investigators that as he stood on the driver’s side of the pickup truck, he could see Lamb. Schwalm also said he noticed Lamb’s left hand and Lamb looking at him.
Schwalm stated there was no gun in Lamb’s left hand, according to prosecutors.
DeValkenaere said he could see both hands from where he was standing, according to the affidavit. He said Lamb’s right hand was on the steering wheel and he saw Lamb slide his left hand down his body, reach into his waistband and pull a gun and point it at Schwalm.
DeValkenaere then fired his gun. Four bullets hit the windshield of the pickup and two struck Lamb, fatally wounding him. After he was shot, the pickup continued to roll backward and came to rest at the back of the garage.
Lamb’s body was inside the truck and his left arm was hanging out of the open driver’s side window.
Medical records show that Lamb is right-handed and he did not have full use of his left hand as a result of an injury sustained in 2015, according to prosecutors.
DeValkenaere is expected to surrender to authorities at a later date. No date has been set on when he will appear in court.
