Prosecutors are asking the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate the police shooting of an unarmed Black man in Kansas City.
Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County, Missouri, prosecutor’s office, said Tuesday that Kansas City police recently submitted the findings from their investigation into the shooting of Donnie Sanders. But Mansur said prosecutors still wanted an outside agency involved, even though Sanders was killed in March, before the patrol began to investigate Kansas City police shootings.
“It is clear, I am guessing, why we don't want people investigating themselves, so we need to make sure we have the best investigation that we can have," Mansur said.
Police said at the time that Sanders raised his arms “as though he had a weapon" as he ran away from a traffic stop. An officer then ordered him to get on the ground and fired when Sanders didn’t follow the commands, police said.
One of Sanders’ sisters, Reshonda Sanders, said her brother had been released from the hospital just one day earlier after undergoing hernia surgery. “We knew he was in intense pain," she said, suggesting he may have been moving slowly. He was 47.
Kansas City Police spokesman Capt. David Jackson said the department is not naming the officer because no charges have been filed. He declined to comment further, saying police have an agreement with the prosecutor not to comment on active cases.
