KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Police Department is determining whether one shooting falls within its use of force policy after an officer shot at a moving car Monday night.
"There was a vehicle that officers were attempting to stop. It was driving at a high rate of speed near 40 Highway and 435," Sgt. Jake Becchina said. "Officers radioed to other officers in that area and there was one nearby."
KCPD said the car was speeding from 31st & Van Brunt down to Interstate 43,5 and the second officer near I-435 shot at the car, which continued to speed away.
KCPD's use of force policy says officers "generally should not discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or from a moving vehicle unless the need to use deadly force is immediate."
But Becchina said each situation should be individually analyzed.
"It does leave latitude for life threatening situations, and each situation is its own and to be taken into conjunction with the totality of the circumstances," Becchina said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the police department couldn't to go into details about the incident, only that the suspect's car was coming toward the second officer.
It is unclear if that means the car was coming directly at the officer or just in the direction of the officer, or how close the car was to them.
"It could be any of those things," Becchina said. "That'll be established as the investigation goes on through interviews as well as review of body cam footage, in-car camera footage, traffic cam footage, all of that."
The department's violent crime division is investigating the shooting. Missouri Highway Patrol will take over the investigation if it's determined that someone was hit by a round fired by a police officer.
Becchina said in this instance, they couldn't determine if anyone was shot.
The police department couldn't say if the officer was outside their vehicle when they fired or whether the officer tried to use stop sticks.
