KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker will not file charges against the two Jackson County court deputies who shot a Blue Springs man during an eviction notice in January 2021.
In a letter dated Nov. 2, 2021, Baker said her office's Use of Force Committee concluded that "the law does not support criminal charges" against the deputies.
The incident occurred around 9 a.m. on Jan. 8, 2021, when deputies with the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County were serving an eviction notice to a man in the 400 block of Northwest Weschester Drive.
The homeowners said that the eviction proceedings against the man had started because he was five months behind on rent, according to the letter.
One of the homeowners felt she was unsafe and believed the man, who she previously had a relationship with, had a plan but believed he would go peacefully.
The deputies approached the house and the man let them in. About three minutes later, the homeowners then heard about four gunshots.
Blue Springs Police Department officers were dispatched to the home because of the shooting.
The deputies said they were notified the man might be dangerous and asked him if he had firearms in the house. The man said no.
While inside the house, the man reached behind a bookcase while maintaining eye contact with one of the deputies.
The deputy said "don't reach for anything" and "show me your hand."
According to the deputies, the man's hand emerged from the bookcase with a long gun, and he raised the gun toward one of the deputies.
One of the deputies drew their weapon and gave the man commands and then fired one time at the man.
That deputy then tripped over some Christmas lights and fell backwards, and they heard the other deputy call out "gun" and fire their weapon.
The tripped-up deputy then looked toward the wall of the living room and saw a long gun laying on the floor, according to the letter.
One of the deputies pulled up the man's shirt to see if he had been shot.
They found a "bullet hole in his upper left chest which exited through upper back and two other wounds in his groin area," the letter said.
One of the deputies asked the other for a first aid kit, and the other said they had one in the car. The deputies put on latex gloves, and one of them grabbed two towels from a bathroom in the home.
One of the deputies continued to talk to the man and applied pressure to his wound around his stomach area. The deputy then asked the man why he grabbed a gun, but the man never replied.
The man was saying "ouch," "it's ok" and "it's alright" while he was being transported onto a gurney.
Both of the deputies statements were similar.
The other deputy said, when they saw the other trip on the Christmas lights, they thought they had been shot, which is why they fired at the man when they saw a gun in his hand.
The man was interviewed by police in the hospital.
“I intentionally had a toy gun that I knew I couldn't hurt them with it and I knew if they saw it that they would fire on me and that's what they did,” the man said according to the letter. “I wanted them to kill me.”
The man also said that he could tell the deputies were "good guys," and he had hoped they wouldn't be. He also felt bad for the situation.
"I felt bad for doing that to them," the man said according to the letter. "I was just ready to go. They did nothing wrong."
During the investigation, it was determined the "long gun" was a black Crosman brand .177 caliber BB/Pellet Rifle, and it did not contain any pellets.
KSHB 41 previously interviewed the man's ex-stepson immediately following the incident, and he said his former stepfather had been dealing with a mental health crisis for several months.
