KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following the announcement that charges wouldn't be filed against the Kansas City, Missouri, police officer who shot and killed a 47-year-old man – and questions from his family – a department spokesperson discussed training and protocol with 41 Action News.
Donnie Sanders was pulled over last year for speeding when, according to police, he exited the car and ran. Some of the encounter was caught on dashcam video, which captured audio of the officer yelling, "Drop," before gunshots are heard. The unidentified officer said he fired after Sanders started to raise his arm as if he had a weapon, although the investigation later revealed Sanders was not armed.
But questions remained for Sanders' family.
"He could have shot him in the leg, he could have given him a warning shot or anything instead of straight-up shooting him," Mark Sanders, Donnie's uncle, told 41 Action News.
Although police are not directly addressing Sanders' case, police said they do not shoot to kill. Instead, they are taught to neutralize a threat and stop what they perceive as a life-threatening action, which means aiming for the largest visible part of a person – often their middle or center mass.
"Use of deadly force? That is a situation where a person is exhibiting behavior or they are doing some sort of action that needs to be stopped as quickly and efficiently as possible," KCPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Jake Becchina said. "Officers are trained if they are going to use deadly force with a firearm, they are trying to shoot for the largest portion or the largest thing that they can see. They need to bring that situation under control and end that life-endangering action as quickly and efficiently as possible for their safety and the safety of those around them who might be behind them or in front of them."
Questions from the public also can concern the number of shots taken when an officer fires at a civilian. But, Becchina said there's science behind that, too.
"If they are going to shoot, they apply that force until that threat becomes a threat no longer, until that movement stops and that action stops," he said.
To do that, Becchina said, it takes time for the mind and body to process the situation.
"Your eyes have to process what they are seeing," he said. "It has to go through the brain, then the nervous system response has to tell the nervous system to stop firing the rounds, and that does take a period of time."
Knowing Sanders wasn't armed, critics have questioned why lethal force was used. While not commenting on Sanders' case itself, Becchina said their training comes down to making split-second decisions that include trying to interpret any sudden movements a suspect might make.
"We are wired for survival, plain and simple," he said. "So our brain is filling in the movements of that person and it is asking itself a million times a second, 'What is this person doing?'"
Should a motion appear to be a suspect reaching for or raising a gun, Becchina said police have to immediately respond.
"There's no other way to say it," he said. "When something like that happens and it results in the death of another person and it is found out that person is unarmed, that is a tragedy."
Police said investigators and prosecutors take all of those aspects of a case into consideration when they decide whether or not to file charges.
But one thing Sanders' family and police agree on is that having a body camera that night could have helped clear up many questions.
The department began looking into body cameras in 2016 but said that despite submitting proposals to purchase cameras and the necessary storage space, their requests were denied due to costs several times.
It wasn't until a private donation was made to police totaling more than $2 million that the department purchased 340 devices that arrived in December. They are expecting another 400 any day now.
Once those arrive, they should have enough for all officers to have one on-duty. Becchina said it's a layer of accountability the department looks forward to.
"I can speak confidently about our department, that the vast majority of our officers day in and day out go out there and they do a good job and they work hard," Becchina said. "And they are among, if not the most, highly trained, highly capable officers that you will find in any police department anywhere in the country. So, if there is something that goes with them that shows everything they do? That’s a positive, and that is something that they want."
