Witness recounts gas station shootout that left man dead, KCPD officer injured
Malcolm D. Johnson had just walked into the gas station at 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue to trade in a lottery ticket Thursday when a pair of Kansas City police officers walked in and approached him, a witness told The Star Friday.
Johnson, who authorities later said was a suspect in a shooting, allegedly drew a handgun and opened fire at the two officers, according to law enforcement investigators.
A bullet struck one of the officers, who immediately returned gunfire, fatally wounding Johnson.
“I got behind the register and then I heard the shooting,” said a gas station clerk, who asked not to be identified because he feared for his safety. “It just happened quickly, you know, it’s not like it took a few minutes, just a few seconds. It was something crazy.”
On Friday, the shooting was under investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which identified Johnson as the man killed.
The patrol said the police officer, who has been with the Kansas City Police Department for eight and a half years, remained hospitalized in stable condition. The officer had been shot in the leg, police said.
The shooting was reported about 6 p.m. Thursday when Kansas City police searching for a suspect in an aggravated assault investigation identified a suspect at the gas station, Sgt. Andy Bell, a highway patrol spokesman, said.
Bell said the two officers went inside to arrest the suspect when “a fight, a struggle ensued.”
After the shooting Johnson, 31, was taken to Research Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The highway patrol has been the lead investigative agency for police shootings in Kansas City since June 2020. Up until then, the Kansas City Police Department investigated its own officers.
The shooting Johnson was being arrested in occurred March 15 in the 9700 block of East 43rd Street, according to police.
There, responding officers were told Johnson allegedly had fired shots at the daughter of the person who dialed 911. Arriving officers found several spent shell casings in the driveway of a home. A bullet grazed the foot of a man at the home, according to a police report.
The caller told police that Johnson was her daughter’s ex-boyfriend and was shooting at her. Gunfire struck four vehicles at the home and Johnson drove away in a black Dodge Journey.
The man who was struck refused medical treatment at the scene.
In 2016, Johnson was mistakenly released from the Jackson County Detention Center while facing charges in a murder case. The next year, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.
On Friday at the gas station, the clerk who witnessed the shooting said the incident was captured on a surveillance camera. The video had been confiscated by the highway patrol.
Attorney and community activist Henry Service said the fact that police have already concluded the shooting was carried out in self-defense should raise questions.
“They lack credibility when there’s a police shooting,” he said.
Last March, a police officer shot and killed Donnie Sanders. Police initially said the 47-year-old man raised his arm “in a motion towards the officer as though he had a weapon,” but the next day, police said he was unarmed.
Earlier this month, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced no charges would be filed against the officer.
“We’ve been through this. This is happening,” Service said. “It keeps happening. Nobody is going to trust the police and justifiably.”
Gun violence is the subject of a statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 3:35 PM.
