‘Mental pain’ won’t go away for Cameron Lamb’s mother as ex-KCPD detective sentenced
Standing in front of the Jackson County courthouse Friday, Cameron Lamb’s mother said while the former Kansas City police detective who killed her son has learned his sentence, her anguish would remain.
“The mental pain that I deal with, that’s not gonna go away,” Laurie Bey said. “I just stay prayerful that each day it will get better.”
Bey spoke with relatives by her side after a Jackson County judge sentenced Eric DeValkenaere, the former detective, to six years in prison in her son’s 2019 killing. DeValkenaere will remain free on bond as he appeals.
DeValkenaere, 43, was convicted in November of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the Dec. 3, 2019, fatal shooting at 4154 College Ave. It marked the first time a KCPD officer was convicted in the killing of a Black man.
Lamb, 26, was backing his pickup truck into his garage when DeValkenaere fired several shots, killing him. DeValkenaere claimed Lamb was armed and pointed a gun at his partner, but prosecutors have contended the gun found near him was planted.
“This has been just a hurtful tragedy for our family,” Bey told reporters Friday. “The healing is just not there yet.”
Jackson County County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the “rule of law spoke.”
“People often have this notion that they want this to be the great fixer, the great equalizer somehow,” she said of the criminal justice system. “What I tell victims’ family when they come in is, the harm has already happened. I’ll never be able to erase that harm; I will be able to address it.”
Social justice advocates said DeValkenaere’s six-year sentence was not adequate, while DeValkenaere’s lawyers vowed to work to exonerate him for what they believe was his defense of his police partner that day.
Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, a local social justice organization, called the sentence “inequitable” compared to sentences imposed on other defendants.
“We continue to believe law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard, not lower than community members,” she said.
Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said she was disappointed in the sentence and the judge’s previous decision to allow “this convicted felon” to remain free on bond while he appeals.
“Yet another slap in the face to our community,” she said.
One of DeValkenaere’s lawyers, Sean McCauley, said compliance by Lamb could have prevented the shooting. He described DeValkenaere’s life as having been turned upside down.
“He does not deserve what has happened to him for doing what was necessary to protect his partner,” McCauley said.
During the sentencing hearing, Dion Sankar, Jackson County’s chief deputy prosecutor, sought a nine-year sentence for DeValkenaere. He said the law requires equal treatment, as it does in neighborhoods across the country.
“The law applies west of Troost the same as it does east of Troost,” Sankar said of Troost Avenue, which has become known as Kansas City’s racial dividing line.
One of DeValkenaere’s lawyers, Molly Hastings, argued that DeValkenaere’s partner, Troy Schwalm, is alive today because of his “necessary decision.” She said the media’s “distortion” that the shooting was racially motivated in any way was “blatantly false.”
“The voracious appetite for scandal when none exists has been profoundly damaging to the accuracy of what happened in this case,” she said. “Manufactured conspiracy theories have only made this worse.”
At the hearing, DeValkenaere’s son and father also addressed the judge. The former detective wiped tears from his eyes during their testimony.
In announcing the sentence, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs explained that murder and involuntary manslaughter are different legal concepts.
“Eric DeValkenaere is not Derek Chauvin who murdered George Floyd,” Youngs said. “Eric DeValkenaere is not one of the three men in Georgia convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.”
The 2019 shooting unfolded after officers investigating an unrelated vehicle crash reported a red pickup chasing a purple Ford Mustang. Helicopter officers spotted the truck driven by Lamb and followed the vehicle to his residence.
DeValkenaere said he fired several shots after Lamb pointed a gun at his partner, Schwalm. Police found Lamb inside the truck with his left arm and head hanging out of the driver’s side window. A handgun was found on the ground near Lamb’s left hand, police said.
During the criminal trial, prosecutors alleged the crime scene was staged and evidence was planted. They also said it took only nine seconds from the time DeValkenaere arrived at the front yard of the house to the moment he fatally shot Lamb.
Youngs determined DeValkenaere and Schwalm did not have a search warrant or probable cause to be on Lamb’s property.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 6:23 PM.
