KC fire captain faces charges alleging assault of co-worker at KC Current match
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KC fire captain faces felony and misdemeanor charges after alleged assault.
- Incident occurred at CPKC Stadium in March 2024; victim reported pain.
- Witnesses describe prior harassment and bullying by the captain.
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The KCFD Files
A series of stories highlights Kansas City Fire Department employees who have been charged with serious crimes — including fatal crashes, a felony drug case and multiple DWIs — and were allowed to remain on the job, some for years.
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March 16, 2024, was a perfect day for soccer fans. Sunny and 62 degrees, with the Kansas City Current opening the season in front of a sold-out crowd in their new stadium along the Missouri River.
Among the crowd was a crew of Kansas City firefighters from Station 25 who had stopped by to check out CPKC Stadium during a lull in their shift. As they stood together, one of the firefighters abruptly doubled over in pain after being forcefully struck from behind, then struggled to regain his balance. The assault, he later told police, caused him to seek medical and mental health treatment.
The alleged perpetrator? KCFD captain John Zach Ising, who faces charges of first-degree harassment, a class E felony, and misdemeanor assault in connection with that event.
Ising’s case is among a series of incidents The Star has reported on in recent months in which fire department employees charged with serious crimes — including assaults, a felony drug case and multiple DWIs — were allowed to remain on the job, some for years.
Ising, 44, has pleaded not guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court and his case is ongoing. The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Employment records show that Ising is a longtime KCFD employee who began working for the department on Feb. 11, 2002, with an annual salary in 2025 of $112,869.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREFor the past several months, The Star has been rolling out an ongoing project revealing how KCFD firefighters with criminal records — including violent offenses — have remained on the job, often shielded from serious discipline by a powerful labor union.
To streamline the reporting process and provide a better picture of how widespread the issue might be, The Star built a custom AI tool that automatically searched public court records for hundreds of names of current and former Kansas City Fire Department employees. It flagged matches with criminal cases and provided links to the case numbers.
Reporters could then look up the cases and verify that the individuals worked for KCFD. The tool saved reporters an enormous amount of time compared to using only traditional search methods.
Among the stories that were developed as a result:
–A firefighter charged with sodomy and rape in 2023 who then pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
–A KCFD captain who remained on the job for more than a year after being arrested a fourth time for drunken driving.
–A former longtime Kansas City firefighter who assaulted a fellow firefighter at Station 27, 6600 E. Truman Road, last year in an incident that co-workers said ended when they pulled him off the victim.
–A fire captain facing charges of first-degree harassment and assault for allegedly striking a fellow firefighter forcefully in the rectum, causing severe pain that required medical treatment.
It’s important to note that AI didn’t write a single word of these stories. That was the work of the reporters. But what it did was help us take a broad idea and quickly gather evidence to support it. And that process allowed the journalists to focus on deeper, more human reporting.
Readers should watch for more stories from this project in the coming weeks.
Still a fire captain
Ising’s attorney, Kevin Regan, did not respond to requests for comment about the case, and the fire department declined to comment.
“I can confirm that Mr. Ising is currently still a Captain with KCFD, but I cannot make any additional comment on an ongoing personnel and legal matter,” said Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins, a department spokesman, in an email on Wednesday.
According to the probable cause statement, Kansas City police were sent to the fire station around 9:30 p.m. on March 16, 2024, on a reported assault. The victim, who is not named in the document, told officers that Ising “struck him forcefully in the rectum from behind, causing him severe pain.” The victim received medical treatment for intense pain, the report said.
The statement said the incident occurred at CPKC Stadium. The victim was on duty at the time of the alleged assault, it said, but Ising was not. The victim told police that he and his squad had stopped to check out the new stadium and were standing shoulder to shoulder on the southwest corner of the field watching the match when he “suddenly felt an immense pain in his crotch and rectum.”
The victim “stated the pain he felt caused his vision to go white,” the document said. He “felt something strike him in the left testicle and his anus/rectum. He hunched over due to the pain and tears began to stream down his face.” He said he then saw Ising standing behind him, smirking and laughing.
The victim told police that he walked with difficulty to the men’s restroom and had to support himself using the wall to keep from falling down. The injury, he said, caused a “significant amount” of bleeding.
When the victim came out of the restroom, he told police, he saw Ising coming toward him, smiling. The victim told Ising to stay away from him. He said Ising then yelled, “F--- you! You little bitch! You’re such a little p----!”
After about 10 more minutes, the victim said, the fire crew headed back to the station at 401 E. Missouri Ave. He said he had to hold onto a rope rail inside the truck because it hurt to sit.
The victim told police that Ising had constantly harassed him at work for two years, sitting next to him during meals and joking about his inability to eat many foods because of his medical condition.
He said he would seek solitude to try and escape the persistent harassment, but Ising “would kick open his door to his room/bunk at the KCFD station and continue to harass him after being told several times to leave him alone,” the probable cause statement said.
The victim said his body “involuntarily flinches on a daily basis when he hears a door slam” because of how often Ising had kicked his door, the document said.
After the assault, the victim told police, he was in pain for about four days. He said he also sought treatment for his mental health “due to the assault and harassment he had endured.”
Witnesses provide similar details
Police interviewed several of the victim’s squad members who provided similar details about the incident.
One told police that he was on duty with his squad and heard the victim make “a pained noise.” He then saw Ising standing behind the victim and laughing, the document said. The victim, the witness said, “was hunched over with his chest against his knees groaning.”
The witness told police the victim then left to go to the restroom and when he hadn’t returned for some time, he looked around and saw the victim leaning against a wall and using one hand to prop himself up. The witness and another squad member walked over to him, and he told them that the blow from Ising had caused pain and bleeding.
The witness told police that the victim “wouldn’t hurt a fly” and said Ising intentionally assaulted the victim because he knew the victim wasn’t likely to retaliate against him. The witness added that Ising was not well liked by other firefighters and said that prior to the assault, he had warned newer recruits to stay away from him.
Another witness told police that he and the others were watching the soccer match when he noticed Ising behind him, then saw the victim hunched over and holding his stomach as though he was in a lot of pain.
He said he assumed that Ising had struck the victim in the testicles, “but thought nothing of it at the time as it was not uncommon for that to happen between co-workers,” the probable cause document said.
He told police that the victim did not eat with the squad when they went back to the station, which was unusual, but said he wasn’t aware of the severity of the injury until later.
The witness also said that “Ising is kind of a d---“ and “was known to ‘mess with’ newer recruits similar to the way he assaulted” the victim, the document said. He added that he and his squad were relieved when Ising was promoted and sent to another location.
A third witness said he was working with the victim’s squad for the day and was standing next to him at the soccer match when he saw Ising behind them. He then saw the victim’s body “jerk forward from where he was standing and was hunched over, groaning in pain,” the document said. He said the victim grabbed his arm in what appeared to be an attempt to keep from falling over.
The witness walked with the victim to the restroom and waited outside, according to the report. When the victim came out, the witness told police, he saw Ising approaching with a smirk on his face.
He said Ising began to talk to the victim “as if trying to apologize,” but the victim was upset and didn’t want to hear what Ising had to say. The witness told police that the victim was apprehensive about filing a police report because of Ising “being of higher rank on the department and not receiving any Union support.”
A fourth witness told police that he was with his squad and standing next to the victim when he saw Ising “swing one arm and smack” him “in the buttock area,” the probable cause statement said.
He said the victim “hunched over as if in pain” and that he “thought nothing of it at the time as he believed it was a ‘butt tap,’ which was common between coworkers as a way to mess with each other,” the document said. As the victim walked away from the group, the witness said, he “appeared to still be in pain.”
The witness told police he was concerned that things could escalate, so he escorted Ising back to his seat. He then rejoined the squad and they left soon after that.
Detectives later learned that Ising had sent that witness text messages about the incident. The probable cause statement said the witness denied receiving any messages in his initial interview with police but later provided them.
In a March 29 text, the document said, Ising wrote: “So I’m being punished for doing something that was hilarious when it happened to me, but because he shifted at the last second and I did it to him instead of getting him square on the hip. Then, when I try to immediately apologize and explain, I’m shut down. So now I’m the bad guy … ”
A fifth witness, identified in the document as the captain for the victim’s squad, told police that Ising displayed “bully” behavior and that during Ising’s time at Station 25, he was known for taking jokes “too far.”
He said those in his squad, including the victim, were able to joke with each other and that their jokes “were always playful.”
But when Ising made a joke, he said, “it was always malicious and occasionally received a response of ‘why would you say that?’ from a squad member.”
The Star’s Mike Hendricks contributed reporting.
This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
