Court deputies shoot, injure person during an eviction in Blue Springs, police say
Court deputies shot a person Friday morning during an eviction in Blue Springs, police said.
Officers responded to the 400 block of Northwest Weschester Drive around 9:20 a.m. on a shots fired call, according to a news release from the Blue Springs Police Department. Process servers, or deputies, from the Jackson County Court System were at a residence serving the eviction notice when they shot the tenant. His age was not specified.
He was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, police said.
Capt. Jeff Sargent with Blue Springs police said the victim was the tenant of the home.
“It is common for violence to occur during an eviction process, but it is not uncommon for the people serving the process to be armed as a protection for themselves,” Sargent said. “They are normally armed. They are officers of the court.”
Police did not say what led to the shooting. They also would not comment if a weapon had been found, saying it was an ongoing investigation.
In a statement, Jackson County Court spokeswoman Valerie Hartman said two court deputies were serving the notice when the man pointed a weapon at them. The deputies then drew and fired their weapons, Hartman said.
The deputies are now on paid administrative leave pending further investigation.
There is not a danger to the community and the deputies were not injured.
KC Tenants has been calling on officials to provide relief for tenants since the pandemic began. Tara Raghuveer, the founding director of KC Tenants, called Friday’s shooting “horrifying.”
“Every eviction is an act of violence especially right now when people are being forced to the streets in a middle of a deadly pandemic,” Raghuveer said. “And sometimes that violence looks like the obvious brutality from this morning and sometimes that violence looks like the bureaucratic process of eviction court like what we disrupted yesterday.”
The Blue Springs Police Department is investigating.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 11:16 AM.
