When KC police officer shoots at car that rammed his motorcycle, bullet wounds infant’s toe

A Kansas City police bullet apparently wounded an infant in the toe Friday morning when an officer shot into a car that had rammed the officer’s motorcycle.

The child was a passenger in the car that hit the motorcycle near 53rd Street and Wabash Avenue about 9:30 a.m., police said.

“It is horrible that an infant was involved and injured in this incident,” police spokesman Capt. Tye Grant said in a written statement. “No child ever should be placed in such a dangerous situation.”

A half hour earlier, the traffic officer had tried to pull over a Dodge Magnum with heavily tinted windows at 31st Street and Bruce Watkins Drive, police said. The driver refused to pull over and sped away.

The traffic officer did not pursue it, but police broadcast a description of the vehicle to other officers.

Later, the officer spotted what looked to be the same vehicle at 53rd Street and Wabash Avenue. The motorist drove at the officer and the vehicle struck his motorcycle, Grant said.

The officer fired at the car to protect himself, but the car sped away, Grant said. The officer did not chase it. He suffered minor injuries, Grant said.

A second officer soon saw the car near 55th Street and Swope Parkway. The car veered toward that officer but missed, Grant said. The car then sped away.

Police later found the empty car in the 5700 block of Jackson Avenue. Several people stood nearby, including a man with two infants. Police took him into custody. Police believe the infants had been in the car during the incidents with police but did not know how many other people had been inside it, Grant said.

Police also saw a man walking away and took him into custody, although they were not sure whether he had been involved in the incidents.

One of the men detained at the scene was the father of the two infants, police said. Investigators believed he was in the vehicle, which belonged to the infants’ mother.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 10:28 AM with the headline "When KC police officer shoots at car that rammed his motorcycle, bullet wounds infant’s toe."