KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A gun battle between a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer and the occupants of a van Friday night along East 31st Street near Van Brunt Boulevard left two people in the van dead.
The KCPD officer was not injured in the shooting, which occurred about 9 p.m. near an intersection known for violence in recent years.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Andy Bell, a spokesman for the agency that is investigating the shooting, said the officer's dash-cam video aspects of the deadly incident.
The officer was stopped in a lane of traffic at a red light at the intersection where U.S. 40 becomes East 31st Street.
Bell said the officer saw a pickup truck stopped suspiciously close to a van.
One man with a firearm jumped out of the pickup truck, but quickly got back in the truck.
A second person in the truck leaned out the driver's side window and pointed a firearm at the van or another car waiting on the red light.
A few seconds later, the pickup truck sped away, Bell said.
The officer activated on his emergency lights and pulled next to the van.
The forward facing in-car camera did not capture the exchange of gunfire, but the officer and the suspects in the van both opened fire, according to investigators. The officer shot through the driver's side window of his patrol car into the passenger side of the van, Bell said.
Investigators found shell casings from the officer's gun and shell casings found gun at the scene.
The van can be seen in the dash-cam footage slowly rolling forward and stopping at a curb.
The officer got out of his car and ordered the people inside the van to come out.
Three people exited the van, but the driver and front-seat passenger remained motionless inside the van.
Marcell T. Nelson, 42, of KCMO, was pronounced dead at the scene and Kristen Fairchild, 42, of Gardner, died a short time later at the hospital from her injuries.
Bell said Fairchild was driving and Nelson was the front-seat passenger.
Investigators will examine both vehicles, autopsies will be performed on Nelson and Fairchild, and any surveillance video at nearby businesses will be examined.
Bell said four guns were found inside the van.
The intersection was the site of another deadly encounter involving KCPD officers nearly three years ago.
Officers responding to a disturbance on July 2, 2020, killed a man just south of the intersection after he opened fire on police, shooting KCPD Officer Tyler Moss in the head.
Moss survived and made a remarkable recovery after fellow officers rushed him to the hospital for emergency surgery. He continues to serve with the department.
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