Before fatal shot, KCK cop got in moving car so driver could ‘not run away’ from weed search
Five days after a Kansas City, Kansas, traffic stop ended with a 25-year-old shot dead, Officer Austin Schuler told homicide detectives he entered a fleeing vehicle so the driver could “not run away” from a marijuana search.
A dangerous situation followed that evening on April 26, 2023, as the officer had one foot on the floorboard and hung on to the car with its driver’s side door open.
He fired two shots at close range, seconds after the car peeled away, striking Amaree’ya Henderson, the driver, in the face and left arm.
Schuler said during a police interview that he feared the car that he had jumped inside a few seconds earlier might collide with a tree.
“I just legitimately thought we were going to hit those trees, and I was going to get, you know, wrapped around one and die,” Schuler said. “Like, I legitimately thought that. And probably the most scared I’ve ever been at work.”
Right after Schuler shot Henderson, the car crashed into a parked SUV on the south side of Metropolitan Avenue, roughly 100 yards from the scene of the traffic stop, throwing Schuler to the pavement.
The patrol officer walked away with scrapes and bruises. Shakira Hill, Henderson’s girlfriend who was in the passenger’s seat, also luckily escaped serious injury.
Schuler, on the force since January 2020, offered his account of the shooting during a May 1, 2023, interview with two detectives from the Kansas City Police Department.
Police on Friday released to The Star a recording of the interview, along with body camera footage and other investigative materials, at the close of a monthslong records dispute.
Despite the officer being cleared of criminal wrongdoing by Wyandotte County prosecutors, and activists’ calls for heightened transparency, Kansas City, Kansas, police declined to publicly release videos of the fatal encounter.
The Star instead obtained the materials from the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, which led an outside agency investigation of the shooting, through Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
The case file offers a rare and detailed look at a police shooting investigation in Kansas, where a tight public records law allows police agencies wide discretion to withhold such information indefinitely.
A Star investigation published in March found many agencies in Kansas frequently decline to share videos of police shootings with the public.
The Star requested videos from all shootings in Kansas under the Kansas Open Records Act. Officials declined to release them to the public 67% of the time.
Eight of those fatal police shootings were in Kansas City, Kansas. The department released one video in 2022 and declined to release footage in the other seven.
Over the summer, Henderson’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County. The lawsuit, which also names Schuler as a defendant, is pending in federal court and alleges violations of Henderson’s civil rights.
Lawyers for the family blame KCK police for the fatal shooting, saying the officers on scene failed to properly deescalate the situation or abide by established public safety practices.
A traffic stop
On April 26, 2023, Schuler received a temporary assignment to cover the South Patrol division, which was short-staffed, he told detectives during his interview.
While driving on Metropolitan Avenue, the officer saw a black sedan with its front passenger headlight out. He turned around to follow the car, ultimately noticing the temporary paper license plate had expired.
Henderson pulled over what appeared to be the first available spot, near other cars parked on the two-lane street. Schuler approached and quickly noticed the smell of marijuana.
After taking his license and confirming his insurance information, Schuler called for backup to help him search the car. He told detectives he did so because he immediately smelled what he believed was burnt marijuana, which remains illegal in Kansas.
About 10 minutes later, two more Kansas City, Kansas, officers — Ricardo Grado and Caleb Munson — arrived at the scene. Grado approaches the passenger side as Schuler heads back toward the rear driver’s side.
“All right, sir, are there any weapons or drugs in the car?” Schuler asks Henderson.
“No, why are you trying to get in my car?” Henderson replies.
“I’m going to go on and have you step on out. OK sir?” Schuler says as he opens the front driver’s side door.
“What are you trying to have me step out for?” Henderson asks.
“Your car smells like burnt weed, so I’m gonna have you step out, OK?” Schuler says.
Sitting in the passenger seat, speaking on a video call with Henderson’s mother Pauletta Johnson, is Hill. She says she is “scared” and “I don’t like this,” as Grado, the other officer, says no one needs to be placed in handcuffs.
To Henderson, Schuler adds: “This isn’t like a request. I am gonna have you step out. We don’t have to make it difficult or anything like that, man.”
Henderson starts the engine as the driver’s door is still open.
“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t do that,” Schuler says. He jumps on the doorframe.
Henderson begins to drive away and pulls toward the left, with the officer still hanging on. He speeds up and travels about 100 yards, as shown in reports and the video footage.
“Stop, I will shoot you,” Schuler yells, drawing his firearm with his right hand. He then fires the first shot within the span of a second as the car crashes.
Police later found that the car contained less than eight grams of marijuana.
‘Put everyone at ease’
In his interview days later with Kansas City detectives, Schuler said the officers attempted to keep Henderson and Hill relaxed and “put everyone at ease” during the traffic stop.
He recounted a back-and-forth with Henderson where the 25-year-old did not comply with his orders.
“And then during that conversation, he starts to reach up and turn the car over, because the car is turned off, at which point I go into the vehicle to get him to not run away, and he then puts it in drive and takes off,” Schuler said.
Schuler described fighting over the wheel of the car and issuing two more verbal commands to Henderson, without an apparent recognition, before pulling his Glock .45 and firing.
Many of the questions asked by the two Kansas City police officers investigating, led by Det. Ephraim Vega, centered on the details of the traffic stop, Schuler’s orders to Henderson and his actions leading up to him firing his weapon.
Also present in the interview was Schuler’s lawyer Sean McCauley, an attorney who frequently represents Kansas City area police officers. He asked Schuler whether a verbal command was given while the car was in motion.
“I know specifically, I said, ‘Stop, or I’ll shoot.’ I did, for a fact, say that, and I believe I may have said, ‘Stop’ one other time prior to that,” Schuler replied.
“Did he stop?” McCauley asked.
“He did not stop,” Schuler said.
