Prosecutors argue Kansas City police staged Cameron Lamb crime scene in first day of trial
Prosecutors meticulously laid out their allegations Monday that Kansas City police staged a crime scene and even planted evidence to support their claims that Cameron Lamb was armed moments before a police detective fatally shot him nearly two years ago.
The details emerged during the criminal trial of Eric DeValkenaere, a police detective, who is accused of killing Lamb, a Black man, as he was backing his pickup truck into his garage. The trial began Monday morning in Jackson County Circuit Court.
DeValkenaere is charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019.
During opening arguments, prosecutors said there was no evidence that anyone had dialed 911, that anyone was hurt or that a crime had even taken place when DeValkenaere and another detective arrived at Lamb’s home in the 4100 block of College Avenue.
At the time that DeValkenaere shot Lamb, he was not armed and the gun that police said he had with him was actually inside of a staircase near the garage, prosecutors said.
On the day of the shooting, Lamb had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend. The argument became physical. At one point, they left the residence with Lamb chasing after her. He received a call from another roommate to return home.
After he returned home is when DeValkenaere and another detective, Troy Schwalm, arrived. They had been notified by a police helicopter that a chase had previously taken place, prosecutors said.
Assistant prosecutor Tim Dollar said that DeValkenaere had no reason to go to the residence or to pull out his weapon and shoot Lamb. Dollar said crime scene investigators who gathered Lamb’s belongings did not find any ammunition. Prosecutors alleged a gun was moved from a set of stairs near the garage and placed near his left hand after he was shot and before crime scene investigators arrived.
“We will ask you to find in your verdict what this case is really about — careful and responsible police officers protect our citizens in their own homes, careless and irresponsible police officers shoot our citizens in their own homes,” Dollar said.
When Lamb’s body was taken to the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office, investigators found two bullets inside of Lamb’s pockets. Those bullets had not been there at the crime scene, Dollar said.
Defense attorney Molly Hastings said that DeValkenaere was part of the violent offender unit that is tasked with preventing and intercepting crimes before they occur. DeValkenaere was being pro-active when he went to the residence after the chase, she said.
Hastings said the prosecution’s key witness had repeatedly given inconsistent statements and had initially told investigators that Lamb usually kept his gun with him.
“Eric did not know Cameron Lamb. Eric did not want to have to shoot him. And Eric is innocent,” Hastings said. “The evidence will show you that had it been any officer in Eric’s position. It would have been the same outcome.”
It was only the first day of a criminal bench trial that is expected to last five days before Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs.
Police officers and supporters of DeValkenaere were seated behind the defendant inside the packed courtroom. Relatives and supporters of Lamb occupied seats on the other side of the courtroom.
Texas civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said Monday that some members of Lamb’s family were excluded from the crowded courtroom. He called the makeup of those watching from the benches, “extremely unbalanced,” adding that many supporters of DeValkenaere were present.
He said in court Monday, only one person has claimed to have seen a weapon in Lamb’s hand, and that was DeValkenaere.
“The state is putting forward irrefutable evidence of officer DeValkenaere’s guilt, and I believe this judge will be forced to rely on the weight of the evidence and the law in finding this officer guilty.
Key witness changes testimony
During testimony later Monday, Officer Troy Schwalm tried to clarify a statement he told investigators the day of the shooting when he said Lamb was not armed at the time.
Schwalm testified that when he and DeValkenaere arrived at the residence, Lamb was backing his pickup into the garage in the rear of the house. Schwalm said he thought Lamb was trying to hide the pickup in the garage following the chase.
Schwalm said he saw Lamb’s left hand on the steering wheel and he “flayed out his fingers,” and he instructed Lamb to turn off the engine and get out of the pickup.
“I wanted to make sure that he (Lamb) could see and hear me,” Schwalm testified.
At that point, Schwalm said DeValkenaere yelled “He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.”
DeValkenaere then fired four gunshots, smashing through the front windshield, striking Lamb in the chest and upper torso.
Dion Sankar, an assistant prosecutor, reminded Schwalm that he told investigators that Lamb was not armed.
Schwalm said, “I was involved with someone who tried to kill me.”
Under cross examination, defense attorney Dawn Parsons asked Schwalm, ”do you think Eric DeValkenaere saved your life?”
Schwalm paused for a moment, became emotional and choked back tears and replied, “yes.”
In other testimony, Officer Kyle Easley, who was one of the tactical response officers who arrived at the residence after the shooting, said he saw Lamb seated behind the steering wheel with his left arm hanging out of the window.
Easley said he was armed with a bullet resistant shield when he and other officers entered the garage following the shooting. Easley testified that he never saw a gun on the ground next to the pickup.
He also said that the shield likely obstructed his view and he later wrote in his report of the shooting that, “we saw the gun on the ground,” noting that other tactical officers said they saw a gun.
DeValkenaere’s 2020 indictment
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced criminal charges against DeValkenaere in June 2020, saying at the time that DeValkenaere’s conduct during the shooting was “reckless” and violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Prosecutors allege the detectives, who were in plainclothes, did not ask for permission to walk onto the property and did not have a warrant.
According to court records, the shooting occurred after an officer investigating a crash reported a red pickup chasing a purple Ford Mustang. The detectives walked onto the property, with DeValkenaere reportedly knocking over a barbecue grill and a car hood to get to the backyard.
DeValkenaere said that he fired after Lamb pointed a gun at Schwalm.
Police investigating the shooting found Lamb inside the vehicle with his left arm and head hanging out of the driver’s side window. On the ground near his left hand was a handgun, according to police.
Baker said she was “stymied” by the police department refusing to issue a probable cause statement in the fatal shooting.
In April, a Jackson County judge denied a motion filed by DeValkenaere’s attorneys to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the detective did not act recklessly during the shooting — an essential element of the involuntary manslaughter charge.
DeValkenaere is one of five officers facing criminal charges who are still at work and being paid. He is assigned to the executive services bureau, which handles police budgeting, facilities, purchasing and building operations matters, among other things.
Support for Cameron Lamb
Merritt, along with the Urban League of Greater Kansas City held a press conference on the courthouse steps on Monday to show their support of Lamb’s family. The families of other Black men shot by police around the country, gathered at the courthouse as well.
Jacob Blake Sr., the father of a Wisconsin man who was shot in the back while he fought with officers as they tried to take him into custody in August 2020, was in attendance and spoke on the steps of the courthouse.
“There’s two systems of justice in the United States,” Blake said. “There’s a system for my Caucasian brothers and sisters, and then there’s nothing for us. It’s just us.”
Monday’s trial is the first time in Kansas City that a white police officer faces a criminal trial in the shooting death of a Black man.
“Today, we come seeking justice for Cameron Lamb who was murdered by a Kansas City police officer” Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Kansas City Urban League said in a statement. “For too long KCPD officers have subjected Black men and women to excessive and deadly force with impunity.”
Blake said this is an opportunity for accountability.
“We come in from all over the country,” he said, flanked by loved ones of George Floyd and Oscar Grant. “We’re not going to stand still and let this continue to happen to us over and over again.”
Merritt, the attorney, said he arrived in Kansas City Monday from southern Georgia, where the trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery is underway.
“Right now, the name of Cameron Lamb should be ringing as loud as any other name in the nation,” Merritt said. “We have to stand against injustice wherever it rears its head, and right now, center stage is the city of Kansas City.”
The uncle of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by a transit officer in 2009, while lying face down at the Fruitvale Station platform in Oakland, California, also spoke.
“I’m here understanding the pain, the agony, the stress of sitting in a trial witnessing for the first time in this city, this state, an officer being on trial for the murder of a young man of color,” he said.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 2:22 PM.
