Should KC police officer face charges in fatal shooting of black man in his own backyard?

The storyline is, unfortunately, a familiar one: An African American man dies in an officer-involved shooting. Despite serious questions about the fatal encounter, the officer quickly returns to active duty, the police department provides few answers, and no legal consequences result.

Will Cameron Lamb’s case be any different?

In December, a plainclothes police detective with the Kansas City Police Department fatally shot 26-year-old Lamb in the backyard of a home where he lived on College Avenue.

Police contend Lamb was part of a domestic disturbance blocks away involving a red pickup truck driven by Lamb and a purple Mustang. A brief pursuit that included a police helicopter and squad cars on the ground ensued.

The chase ended in Lamb’s yard, where the father of three was killed after he allegedly pointed a gun at an officer from the front seat of his truck.

An internal police inquiry is complete, and the case has been turned over to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

The prosecutor declined to comment until her office completes its own investigation. All officers involved in the pursuit are back on active duty, police said.

Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, challenged the police narrative released after the shooting and urged Baker to consider filing a criminal complaint against the detective who fired the fatal shot.

“Police put out a narrative the day of the shooting that Cameron had a gun,” Grant said. “What was not clear was probable cause.”

Lee Merritt, a nationally-known civil rights attorney who is representing Lamb’s family, said police were on Lamb’s property illegally and recklessly pursued a nonviolent traffic offender. Merritt also questioned whether officers violated Lamb’s Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“Mr. Lamb was killed in his own backyard,” Merritt said. “As a constitutional lawyer, I am particularly offended when people of color are killed in their own home. It’s something about the sanctity of someone’s home that should be protected.”

Officers were in the area on an unrelated call when the initial disturbance took place. A police helicopter took over the pursuit. But police never mentioned a gun being involved, nor was there a threat to human life — factors necessary to justify deadly force.

Police did try to justify the shooting in the department’s initial public statements.

“The driver of the truck presented a clear danger to other drivers, particularly the occupants of the purple Mustang he was chasing,” police said in a detailed but one-sided explanation released on the department’s website.

“When law enforcement begins to create a narrative around a story, we see the same thing,” Merritt, the family attorney, said. “They tend to malign the character of the decedent, and they look for a justification. We all know what they are now: ‘Fear for my life; perceived a threat.’

“They’ve been trained to do that.”

Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who studies police pursuits, previously told The Star that police officers should engage in vehicle pursuits only if the suspect has committed a violent crime, such as murder, rape, armed robbery or kidnapping.

Lamb’s death was only the latest fatal shooting of a black man in Kansas City. In a similar case, a Jackson County grand jury declined to indict another Kansas City police officer in the questionable shooting death of 30-year-old Terrance Bridges, an unarmed black man suspected of fighting with his girlfriend.

The lack of transparency in these cases and the lack of an independent citizens review board are among the many factors that stack the deck in favor of police, making it nearly impossible to hold officers responsible for unlawful acts committed while on duty.

Lamb’s family deserves a lot more answers. And if the evidence warrants, they deserve to see the detective who killed a 26-year-old black man face legal consequences.

This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.