Officials mum as questions linger in Kansas City paramedic’s violent death
Kansas City will honor and say goodbye to Graham Hoffman on Friday, five days after the firefighter-paramedic was fatally stabbed while in the back of an ambulance helping a patient.
In the days since Hoffman died, and after revelations surfaced about the woman accused of killing him, questions have lingered regarding what transpired in the days and moments before the stabbing occurred.
Why was Shanetta Bossell out on bond early Sunday morning, four days after she was charged with second-degree assault for an incident where she allegedly bit an off-duty Platte City police officer and tried to grab his knife? Did police, who were called to check Bossell’s welfare after 12:30 a.m. Sunday, run her name and see she was just released on bond Friday?
Did anyone on that call know a probable cause affidavit for last week’s incident included a clear warning: “Due to the violent nature of the incident Bossell should be considered a danger to the public.”
Officials are saying little and not answering those questions.
“Since she has been charged anything additional would need to come from the prosecutors office,” said Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a Kansas City Police spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Clay County Prosecutor Zach Thompson said the office could not comment on any ongoing case.
In relation to Hoffman’s death, Thompson has charged Bossell with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, third-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. All of the charges are felonies. She has pled not guilty.
Fire department to review call
The most information has come from the Kansas City Fire Department, where Hoffman, 29, worked for the past three years.
Michael Hopkins, a Kansas City Fire Department Battalion Chief, said to his knowledge Bossell was not combative with police during the initial contact. And whether police knew her name and ran it for prior history, that would be a question for law enforcement, Hopkins said.
He did say that the department will “review the situation and determine if we can do anything better to ensure the safety of our members.” That’s standard anytime someone with the fire department is injured or killed, Hopkins said.
“In the coming days and weeks, we will do that here,” Hopkins said. “Chief Grundyson and the KCFD Fire Administration will work with locals 42 and 3808 as well as our members to determine what changes, if any, can or should be made to make our members safer as they perform their duties.
“The work we do is very nuanced particularly on the medical side and many factors have to be looked at when making those determinations. .. We will review this case and determine if policy changes are necessary or if new policies are needed.”
Services for Hoffman will be held Friday at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, 1600 State Route 291, in Liberty, the department said. A public visitation will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a funeral service will take place from 1-2:30 p.m.
A memorial procession will leave the church at 3 p.m.
In the wake of Sunday’s tragedy, one key thing to understand is that each call first responders go on can be different, said Larry Jennings, president of the Fire Fighters Association of Missouri.
And what’s going on in real time dictates “some of those steps that may need to take place,” Jennings said, “because you can’t realistically do the same steps on every call. It just doesn’t happen.”
With so many of the details from that call not public, he and others say, it’s impossible to know what unfolded that morning and why.
“Until all of the facts are known, it’s really going to be hard for KC Fire, KC Police, any agency across the country, to take those steps to counter any of this from ever happening again,” Jennings said.
“You’ve got to get all of those facts together before any of us can really make many judgments or conversations or changes.”
Two-person crew
Hoffman, who was assigned to Station 42 in southeast Kansas City, was working overtime in Kansas City’s Northland when a call came in about a woman walking in the roadway at 152 Highway and North Oak Trafficway after midnight Sunday morning.
“Someone spotted the individual and was concerned that they were in the road,” Hopkins said.. And they called 911.
Ultimately, police on scene found she had a laceration on her hand that was “bleeding heavily,” according to a probable cause affidavit describing the charges against her.
That court record stated that once fire department paramedics arrived, they spoke with her and determined “she was not trying to harm herself and she did not want to go the hospital.”
“Officers advised Bossell they would give her a ride to her residence and Bossell refused to go with officers,” the affidavit said. She then agreed to go to the hospital in the ambulance. The affidavit showed that an officer told KCFD paramedics that he would follow them to the hospital.
Hoffman was in the back with Bossell while his partner drove the ambulance.
In general, it’s “pretty customary” to have a two-person crew, Jennings said.
“It’s a department by department issue,” Jennings said. “But I think the typical number you’re going to find in most any agency is a two-person ambulance crew. Somebody’s got to drive so that leaves one in the back.”
The size of the crew could increase, Jennings said, depending on the nature of the call and what’s needed.
“Now that could escalate,” he said, “depending on what kind of call it is, depending upon the agency that’s involved, they may send another vehicle along, and then they add extra people on the ambulance.”
As Hopkins put it: “It all is based on the nature of the call, on what work needs to be done.”
For a cardiac arrest, “you need more hands,” Hopkins said.
“(But), on a call like this where it’s laceration to the hand, that is something that a single firefighter can handle, so it was just the one individual.”
It was soon into that ride that a police spokesperson said Bossell “produced an edged weapon” and stabbed Hoffman in the chest, piercing his heart. At this point, It is not clear where the knife came from.
When are searches warranted?
When first responders loaded Bossell into the ambulance, court records do not indicate that she was unruly or combative. And she was not under arrest.
When asked about whether police could have searched Bossell in a situation like the one Sunday, Gonzalez did not directly answer but said the department follows “the legal standard as it pertains to the 4th Amendment regarding search, frisk, and seizures.” That amendment prohibits the government from conducting “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
That means, according to the amendment, police cannot search a person without permission unless they have a warrant or probable cause.
Hopkins gave further insight.
“So in a situation like this,” he said, “where the patient initially did not seem combative, they had an obvious laceration, were willing, of their own accord, to be taken to the hospital to have that checked out, there’s really no reason for (a search).”
He said there are times that searches may be warranted.
“Like if we are called, and the nature of the call is for, say, mental illness or someone has been detained by the police, then in those situations, yes, they are searched by the PD,” Hopkins said. “Because in those situations, that person is being detained by the police so therefore the PD has the legal grounds to search that individual.
“If the person is not being arrested or detained, then just like any other person, they’re just going to the hospital by ambulance. There’s no cause for searching.”
Hopkins said if a person doesn’t “present as combative initially, it would be no different than you calling an ambulance.”
“We’re not going to search you,” he said. “ ... Our main concern is getting you to the hospital.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 10:59 AM.
