Police say man they shot ‘produced a firearm.’ Witness says it was a cellphone.

A witness to an Independence police shooting Tuesday night said the man police shot was not armed with a handgun but was holding a cellphone.

The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. on Oak Hill Cluster in the Harvest Hills neighborhood just off Missouri 7. Police said officers were conducting a vehicle check when a man in his 40s got out of a car and ran.

Officer John Syme, a spokesman for the Independence Police Department, said on Wednesday that as officers chased the man he “produced a firearm,” and at least one of the officers fired their weapon.

The man was injured and was taken to a hospital. The Police Department’s investigation into the shooting continued, Syme said.

However, a man who witnessed the shooting said Wednesday that the man police shot was holding a cellphone — not a handgun.

“They said he had a gun, I saw a cellphone. I didn’t see no gun,” said the man, who asked that his name not be published for safety reasons. “I stood right here and watched the whole thing.”

The witness said that, minutes before the shooting, a pair of officers were following another vehicle that was driving through the neighborhood. The officers stopped following that car and pulled over to check a car parked in front of several homes. A man and a woman were inside the car, the witness said.

The shooting happened after officers approached the vehicle and a man ran.

An officer fired at least five shots at the man, striking him in the shoulder, chest and back, the witness said.

“I think he was turning around and had his cellphone in his hand and (the officer) thought he had a gun and shot him,” the witness said.

At least 20 police officers, crime scene investigators, detectives and tactical response officers soon converged on the neighborhood. The witness said the woman, who lived nearby, was handcuffed and arrested.

Office Syme, the police spokesman, said a woman was inside in the car when the shooting happened. The woman was part of their investigation and no criminal charges have been filed against her.

“It is all really preliminary. Any time we have an officer-involved shooting, the officers involved in it don’t give a formal statement right away,” he said. “It is (Police Department) policy that they are allowed to take some time and once we get that interview conducted, we will know a lot more.”

As part of the investigation, detectives would get a search warrant on the vehicle involved in the incident, Syme said.

There are about 55 homes in the Harvest Hills neighborhood. Several residents said the neighborhood association was holding its monthly meeting at a nearby church when the shooting occurred.

The Independence Police Department released a statement on Friday, Sept. 7, that included a photograph of the pistol its Crime Scene Technicians recovered at the scene of the shooting. 

This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 6:38 PM.