‘A little bit of peace’: Mom of Kansas teen shot by police welcomes FBI investigation
Knowing that federal investigations into officer involved shootings are rare, Sheila Albers did not often let herself consider the possibility of such an inquiry into the 2018 killing of her son by an Overland Park police officer.
The one time she let her self consider it, Albers said, was in June when she discovered on a public salary database that the officer who shot 17-year-old John Albers had received a $70,000 severance payment when he resigned.
“That was when I thought, ‘oh my gosh I have an actual piece of evidence here that shows something isn’t right,’” Albers said.
She’d long been suspicious of the Overland Park and Johnson County officials who investigated her son’s killing but “suspicion doesn’t get you an open investigation.”
Then, three months after Albers discovered the separation agreement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that it and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Kansas had opened a civil rights investigation into the case.
In a phone interview Thursday, Albers said she was grateful to see her son’s case reopened and hoped the investigation would yield transparency and accountability not only for her son but also for other victims of police shootings.
Federal Investigation
“The Kansas City FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights division, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Kansas have opened a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of an Overland Park teen, John Albers,” Bridget Patton, spokeswoman for the FBI in Kansas City, said in a written statement Thursday.
“The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner. As this is an ongoing investigation we are not able to comment further at this time.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Kansas confirmed its involvement in an investigation but declined to provide further details.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office explained what prompted the investigation. It is unclear whether or not the severance payment played a role in the federal authorities’ decision to open an investigation.
Though Albers acknowledged she had been in touch with federal authorities for several weeks, she said that she said she was unsure of the extent of the investigation and was “stunned” to see federal authorities acknowledge it publicly.
“There’s a little bit of peace knowing that there will be a more thorough and more detailed investigation and that the city and the district attorney will be forced to be transparent and accountable for their actions and their decisions,” Albers said.
Officer Clayton Jenison was called to the teen’s home on a welfare check in January 2018 because the teen was believed to be suicidal. Dashcam video shows John Albers driving the family’s van, exiting the garage and backing down the driveway as officers arrived.
An officer is heard yelling “stop.” The van keeps backing out and Jenison jumps aside and fires two shots from the side. The van backs toward the street and then whips back around, still in reverse, in the direction of the officer, who fires 11 more shots from the side.
Months later, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe declined to file charges against Jenison and the officer resigned. Public officials maintained before and after Albers discovered the separation agreement that Jenison resigned for “personal reasons.”
Howe’s office on Thursday declined to comment on the federal investigation.
In a statement to The Star, Overland Park spokesman Sean Reilly said, “the City will fully cooperate with all investigations into the 2018 shooting of John Albers, just as we cooperated with the investigations conducted by the Johnson County District Attorney’s office and the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards.”
Push for reform
Albers says she hopes a federal investigation will bring the answers and accountability she’s been seeking for years.
“I don’t know what are in records that I’ve never been able to see,” she said. The family has sought and been denied various records regarding the investigation into John Albers’ killing.
“If they’re comfortable with their decisions then you should be showing those records to the surviving family members,” Albers said.
Following her son’s death, Albers founded JoCo United, a community organization pushing for better police training and transparency in the suburban county.
Albers, the organization and a number of her family and friends have advocated for reforms over the past two years. Two of those reforms, CIT training for every Overland Park officer and policy prohibiting Overland Park police from shooting into moving vehicles, were implemented or promised this year.
She has also pushed for statewide policy that would alter open records law to provide greater transparency in policy shootings.
Moving forward, Albers said, she and her community plan to push for similar reforms nationwide.
“I think we’ve hit a critical juncture in our country where transparency and accountability are no longer requests, they’re demands,” Albers said.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 9:29 PM.
