Daughter ‘pleased’ that ex-KC cop could get life in prison for murdering her dad
A former Kansas City police officer will potentially face life in prison after shooting and killing a man in a Walmart parking lot. Now, the victim’s family hopes the verdict will bring them more space to process and grieve in peace.
Taquiza Johnson was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Ronald Barnett, 71, on August 21, 2024. Johnson allegedly made an inflammatory gesture at Barnett’s car outside a Walmart supercenter near the Shops at Boardwalk in Kansas City’s Northland, then approached Barnett’s vehicle on foot and shot him with a pistol.
Johnson was an officer with the Kansas City Police Department from December 2003 through February 2014, and was last assigned to the patrol bureau, said Captain Jake Becchina, a spokesperson for the department.
Barnett’s daughter Elizabeth Moon told The Star Tuesday that the verdict came as “a shock” to her family, and that she felt Johnson should have been convicted of first-degree murder. He was initially charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
However, Moon and her family are “pleased” that the jury recommended Johnson face life in prison, she said.
Barnett is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren, five siblings and his cat Sammie, according to an obituary shared online after his death. Moon said that grieving Barnett has been a slow, complex process inhibited by the nearly two years of legal proceedings between her father’s death and Johnson’s conviction.
“It’s like you can’t heal because you’re constantly going to court, and having to reopen these wounds,” Moon said.
Moon has been unable to return to work since her father’s murder, she said. Several of her siblings have taken extended leaves of absence from work in the past several months while battling intense anxiety.
“They have constantly worried that something terrible is going to happen again,” Moon said.
As jurors deliberated on Johnson’s murder charge, the trial process raised several new issues for Moon and her family, she said. When a 911 call was placed in the wake of the shooting, Barnett faced long wait times and was transferred between teams of arriving emergency responders, Moon said.
“That’s just crazy to me and our family,” Moon said. “But outside of that, I think we’re pleased with what the jury did eventually come back with, with life in prison.”
Barnett was pronounced dead at North Kansas City Hospital about half an hour after Johnson shot him.
Moon also told The Star that attorneys for Johnson attempted to argue that the brief altercation between Johnson — who is Black — and Barnett, who was white, was racially motivated. This was an insult to her father’s character as Johnson faced a legal reckoning over his murder, she said.
“We knew that’s where (Johnson’s attorney) was going to go with it, because he didn’t have any case,” Moon said. “If people knew my dad, they knew he wasn’t racist… As a family, we don’t feel like we need to defend him on not being racist, because if you knew him you knew he was absolutely not.”
Though satisfied with Johnson’s conviction, Moon told The Star that she believes the ex-officer was dishonest during his time on the witness stand.
“It’s a lot to process, and a lot to take in, like just hearing what he tried to say about my dad, and knowing that it was all lies,” Moon said.
Moon advised other families going through a similar loss to approach the trial process, and the legal system at large, as a unified team.
“It’s a long, hard process, but just stick together and always go to every court proceeding,” Moon said.
Moon filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KCPD on February 11, 2025, in Platte County court. That lawsuit is still pending, Moon said.
The Star’s Eleanor Nash contributed reporting.
