Johnson County prosecutors to hold press conference on fatal Lenexa police shooting
The Johnson County district attorney’s office is holding a press conference Thursday afternoon about a Lenexa police shooting that killed Grandview man Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon.
The press conference comes after both Lenexa police officers involved in the shooting have already returned to work , before prosecutors announced whether either would face charges .
The officer who fired the fatal shots returned to modified duty in September, a police spokesperson told The Star last month. The other officer at the incident who did not fire their weapon returned to duty a week later.
Loved ones of Chacon have also hired attorneys to press Lenexa police for answers about the shooting.
Police have shared little about what transpired in the early morning hours of June 22 when Chacon, 25, was killed. No details have been released about what specifically led to the shooting .
Around 3 a.m., police were called to the Lenexa Crossing Apartment Homes, in the 12400 block of West 97th Terrace, to a report of a disturbance involving someone with a gun, according to the department’s initial news release.
It is not clear who called authorities and why.
Once officers arrived at the complex, the release said, they located an individual inside a parked vehicle near the pool/clubhouse area.
“During the encounter with that individual, at least one Lenexa officer discharged their firearm, striking the individual,” the release said. Chacon was transported by Johnson County Med-Act to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced dead, police said.
Police knocked on the family’s door around 7 a.m. that day to tell them that Chacon had been shot. Family has said that Chacon was shot five times.
Lenexa police have declined to provide any additional information while the incident is still being investigated.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team has been handing the investigation into the case, as is standard procedure, with the Olathe Police Department serving as the “host agency.”
In July, the ACLU of Kansas called for the “immediate release” of the body camera footage from the shooting. The release, the non profit said, would allow for transparency and accountability.
The same month, an attorney for the relatives of Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon said Lenexa police agreed to let family members who live in the Kansas City area view the footage.
The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to this reporting.
