Prosecutors ask outside agency to review Kansas City police killing of Donnie Sanders
The investigation into the fatal shooting of Donnie Sanders by a Kansas City police officer in March is now being reviewed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, officials said.
Michael Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, said the Kansas City Police Department recently completed its investigation and gave the file to the prosecutor’s office. Instead, the prosecutor’s office handed the case over to an outside agency.
“We’ve made clear whenever we needed to that the police department shouldn’t investigate itself, especially in fatal officer-involved shootings,” Mansur said Tuesday afternoon. “So when they submitted this case to us, we immediately asked highway patrol to look at this investigation and review it.”
Sgt. Andy Bell, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol, confirmed Tuesday that his agency was asked to look into the case. There is no timeline yet on when the investigation might be completed.
Sanders was killed on March 12 by an officer who believed he was armed. The day after his death, the Kansas City Police Department announced Sanders was not carrying a weapon.
Highway patrol began investigating all shootings, both fatal and non-fatal, by members of the Kansas City Police Department on June 13, when an officer shot and killed William Slyter.
In a news release that day, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said highway patrol would be investigating the shooting because of policies he asked the Board of Police Commissioners to enact. The police department agreed to call in an outside agency.
Sanders’ case has now been added to highway patrol’s list of investigations.
Once the investigation is completed, it will be turned back over to the prosecutor’s office for review.
A use of force committee chaired by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker will look over the findings and determine how to proceed, Mansur said. A number of options are possible. The committee members might request further investigation, take the case to a grand jury or decide whether to charge the officer.
Sanders’s family has said he was driving from his girlfriend’s house near Linwood Boulevard and Chestnut Avenue to his sister’s house on 57th Street and Indiana Avenue when he encountered police.
According to the police department, an officer attempted to pull Sanders over at about 11:15 p.m. at 51st Street and Prospect Avenue.
The car came to a stop in an alley and Sanders got out of the vehicle and ran, police said.
He then turned toward an officer near 52nd Street and raised his arms “as though he had a weapon,” police said at the time. Sanders was told to drop the weapon — which police later determined he was not carrying.
An officer shot him when he didn’t comply, police said.
Sanders was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died. The officer was placed on administrative leave, but has since returned to work.
In recent months, Sanders’ family joined protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
