KCPD officers shoot man during standoff. Why did it take 11 hours for public to find out?
Two Kansas City police officers opened fire and injured a man during a domestic disturbance overnight, but it took hours before the public was notified of the police shooting.
The police shooting occurred after 10 p.m. Sunday, but the Missouri State Highway Patrol didn’t release a statement about the investigation until about 8:40 a.m. Monday
It’s believed that the man was struck by officer gunfire, Cpl. Justin Ewing, a spokesman for Troop A of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said Monday..
Emergency medical crews took the man to a hospital, and he is expected to survive. He was in stable condition Monday morning. The extent of the man’s injuries, including where the man had been shot, is part of the investigation, Ewing said.
According to the preliminary investigation, officers responded about 10 p.m. to a 911 call reporting a domestic disturbance involving a weapon at a home in the 4300 block of Laurel Avenue in the Riss Lake neighborhood on Kansas City’s East Side, according to the highway patrol’s statement.
Arriving officers contacted a man at the front door of a home and attempted to speak with him. The man entered and exited the house multiple times before allegedly exiting with a gun, the highway patrol said.
Two officers fired their weapons at the man, and he retreated inside the home, the highway patrol said. Police requested tactical officers to respond to the standoff.
At about 11:45 p.m., officers entered the home and took the man into custody. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The man’s demeanor and whether the man threatened the officers with the weapon is part of the ongoing investigation, Ewing said. Investigators have not reviewed any available camera footage or processed or investigated other evidence, he said.
Disclosure of police shooting delayed for hours
Information that police officers shot and injured a man, however, was not disclosed until nearly 11 hours after police responded to the call.
In the past, Kansas City police have put out information on officer-involved shootings and standoffs, even when they were not investigating the shooting.
“Each situation is unique,” said Kansas City police spokesperson Officer Alayna Gonzalez when asked why that wasn’t done with this shooting. “We coordinate the release of the information regarding KCPD officer involved shootings with the MSHP. The release of information is ultimately at their discretion.”
The highway patrol was notified and put on standby for a possible police shooting investigation between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Once the man was taken into custody and it was officially determined he had been injured in the shooting, that is when the highway patrol learned they would be investigating the police shooting, Ewing said.
Ewing said there were some “communications issues” on several different facets that delayed the release of information about the police shooting.
“It was more honestly of an administrative aspect,” Ewing said. The highway patrol was in talks with the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Kansas City Police Department.
Usually, the approval process doesn’t normally take that long. This time, Ewing said there were some issues with getting a hold of the right people. Any statement also needs approval from highway patrol staff in Jefferson City.
“It was more of an administrative thing that I don’t foresee happening in the future,” Ewing said.
Ewing clarified that the highway patrol doesn’t seek approval from the Kansas City Police Department before releasing statements.
“When we are holding an investigation on an officer-involved shooting, we are the ones creating the statement,” Ewing said. “We’re the ones working with the prosecutor’s office to make sure our statement has the information that we can release, but also make sure we’re not compromising the investigation of any sort.”
The highway patrol has yet to interview the officers involved in the shooting, Ewing said. Those interviews will be conducted later this week.
The employment status of the officers involved was unclear Monday afternoon. When asked if they were on administrative leave or remain on regular duty, Gonzalez said the officers involved were not named.
When asked how long the officers had been with the department, Gonzalez referred to her previous response that the officers had not been named.
