Kansas Police Line: "We Don't Like Killing Anyone"
Photo: Larry W. Smith / Getty Images
A police officer shoots a man while on duty in Kansas City.
The reason given is self-defense.
The man killed is said to have disarmed another police officer and threatened him with his own pistol.
The story behind the message sounds like film material: The man who was killed is Lionel Womack, son of a policewoman and married to a policewoman.
In 2007, Womack joined the Kansas City Police Department himself.
He was promoted to detective in 2018, but fired two years later for allegedly violating guidelines several times.
In August 2020, the month he was released, Womack was run over by Deputy Jeremy Rodriguez.
Rodriguez doesn't work in Kansas City, but for the sheriff of Kiowa County in the neighboring state of Colorado.
Womack accuses Rodriguez of intent and sued him.
The deputy denies the allegations and insists on his immunity.
15 months later, Womack is dead, shot by a police officer.
"He knew our tactics"
The officers had been called to an operation because a man was standing on a street and threatened to jump into the flowing traffic.
The man was Womack, who is said to have stormed the arriving police officers "in an aggressive manner" immediately.
He managed to get into the driver's seat of the emergency vehicle.
When one of the officers tried to get him out, there was a scuffle in which Womack took the police officer's weapon.
With this he threatened both officers, so that the other had no choice but to fire the fatal shot.
"The whole incident lasted only 26 seconds," said Police Chief Karl Oakman at a press conference, referring to video recordings from the two officers' cameras that documented the process.
“He knew our tactics.
I think that helped him disarm our coworkers, ”Oakman said.
The situation was very dangerous for the two police officers, he added.
You wouldn't have had any other chance.
"We don't like to kill someone"
"We were all friends with this guy," said police spokesman Thomas Tomasic.
Nobody had a problem with him.
In addition, the officers did not know when the emergency call was received that the man on the street was Womack.
He denied that Womack's killing was related to the deputy’s lawsuit.
"He was a nice guy," said Tomasic.
“It's very strange.
It is terrible.
We don't like to kill anyone.
And obviously we don't want to kill someone we've worked with for many years. "
mmm
