As Gov. Parson frees ex-KC cop early, newly released case file details Cameron Lamb shooting
Five years after a Kansas City police detective killed a Black man and went to prison, questions remain about the circumstances of the shooting.
Former detective Eric DeValkenaere said he saw a gun in Cameron Lamb’s left hand when he fired four shots toward the 26 year old.
Another officer at the scene said he did not see a gun. Lamb’s family also pointed out that he was right-handed.
DeValkenaere was charged and sentenced to six years in prison. At trial, Jackson County prosecutors alleged the crime scene was staged, including a gun they said was planted on the ground under Lamb’s left hand. DeValkenaere was ultimately convicted on the grounds that he did not have the right to be on Lamb’s property.
He was the first white Kansas City police officer to be convicted in the killing of a Black man and many community members felt like it was a step towards equal justice.
But that unraveled Friday when Republican Gov. Mike Parson announced he was commuting DeValkenaere’s sentence, a few days ahead of Christmas.
The long-expected decision has been met with anger from police reformers and activists.
“It’s going to be a horrible message to a city that has already been struggling with trying to build any kind of rapport with the police,” Sheryl Ferguson, founder of It’s Time 4 Justice, told The Star.
Recently, the Kansas City Police Department released more than 500 pages of documents related to its investigation. The Star requested the case file in June after a potential appeal on DeValkenaere’s case expired.
The file contained hundreds of pages of witness accounts as well as crime lab reports and photos from the scene.
Different reports list both DeValkenaere and Lamb as a suspect.
The investigation did not include body camera footage because at the time, KCPD was not using the devices.
Lamb’s shooting and other instances of local police violence became a rallying cry for reform. Protests peaked during the summer 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and included calls for body cameras and other changes.
Since then, the police department now relies on the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate its police shootings. Its officers also have body cameras.
Was Lamb armed?
On Dec. 3, 2019, Lamb and his girlfriend got into an argument that became physical. They left his residence with Lamb chasing her. His roommate called him and told him to return. Officers investigating an unrelated crash reported a red pickup truck pursuing a purple Ford Mustang. Officers in a police helicopter spotted the truck, driven by Lamb, and followed the vehicle to his residence in the 4100 block of College Ave.
DeValkenaere and his partner detective Troy Schwalm were nearby.
Roberta Merritt, who lived with Lamb at the white and red-brick single-family residence, testified that neither detective identified themselves as police officers or were given permission to walk onto her property. DeValkenaere pointed his gun at her as he walked towards the back of the house, she said.
He reportedly knocked over a barbecue grill and a car hood to get to the backyard.
Lamb was backing his pickup into the garage in the rear of the house. DeValkenaere was facing the truck positioned closer to the passenger side while Schwalm was on the driver’s side.
“He drew the weapon from the left side of his waist band,” DeValkenaere said during a police interview.
The black handgun was in Lamb’s left hand, DeValkenaere told investigators, and “I thought he was going to shoot Troy.”
Schwalm said he started yelling at Lamb to put the truck in park.
“Detective Devalkenaere says ‘He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun.’ And I didn’t see it,” Schwalm said. “All I saw was his, it would have been his left hand, waving at me and he was looking at me. And whenever detective DeValkenaere said that he had a gun, detective DeValkenaere discharged his weapon.”
DeValkenaere fired four times. The autopsy report said Lamb suffered a gunshot wound to the right upper chest and his left leg. It also said there was “no evidence of medical intervention.”
Nine seconds had passed from the time they arrived to the moment Lamb was shot, court testimony revealed.
An event chronology report indicated the truck was chasing the Mustang at 12:22 p.m. The truck arrived in the 4100 block of College and began backing into the driveway at 12:25 p.m. Shots were fired at 12:28 p.m. A “party down” was reported at 12:29 p.m.
According to a crime scene report, investigators located four shell casings. The truck’s windshield had “four defects” where DeValkenaere had fired.
“The victim was a black male, wearing a black ‘do-rag’ and a light blue hoodie,” the report continued. “The victim was leaning towards the driver’s door. His left arm was out of the window and his head was partially out of the window. A black Glock 41, Gen 4, .45 Auto (Serial #XVS356) was lying on the floor of the garage towards the front driver’s side tire.”
According to a Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department report, the gun had been stolen in March 2018. That suspect pleaded guilty to stealing in February 2019, according to court records.
During DeValkenaere’s trial, prosecutors said Kansas City police staged the crime scene and planted evidence to support their claim that Lamb was armed. Prosecutors alleged a gun was moved from a set of stairs near the garage and placed near Lamb’s left hand after he was shot and before crime scene investigators arrived.
A tactical response officer testified that he did not see a gun, but said he was armed with a bullet resistant shield that likely obstructed his view.
Schwalm testified that he believed DeValkenaere saved his life.
Prosecutors argued no one had called 911, no one had been hurt and no crime had taken place when the two detectives arrived at the house.
At the conclusion of the November 2021 bench trial, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs noted that the two detectives did not have a search or arrest warrant, which would have allowed them to be on the property. They did not have consent and there was no imminent danger that would have permitted their presence on the private property. He called DeValkenaere and Schwalm “the initial aggressors in the encounter with Cameron Lamb.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 4:54 PM.
