OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Overland Park, Kansas, police Chief Frank Donchez said he has two priorities Monday, the day after Officer Mike Mosher died in a shootout with a suspect. Those priorities are to start planning a funeral to remember Mosher and to comfort his employees.
Peer support specialists are available to officers and other employees at the police department and will be there for the next several days.
The officers who worked Sunday during the shooting have Monday off work. Donchez said other agencies will send officers to cover their shifts.
The police chief will work with Mosher's family to plan a funeral.
He admitted stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines currently in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are complicating the planning process.
“I gotta be honest with you, I’m going to push that to the limit to honor Mike. So we’re going to do what we can, but there’s going to be a lot of planning going forward to figure all that out,” Donchez said.
The police chief revealed the suspect who investigators say shot Mosher was a man in his 30s. Later Monday, the Johnson County Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team (OISIT) identified the suspect as 38-year-old Phillip Michael Carney of Overland Park.
The Merriam Police Department confirmed the Johnson County OISIT is meeting at that department’s headquarters Monday morning to go after leads in the investigation.
Preliminarily, Overland Park police said Mosher, 37, was on his way to work Sunday evening when he witnessed a hit-and-run crash near 143rd Street and Antioch Road.
Mosher followed the suspect. The officer was in his personal car, but wearing his uniform. A department spokesperson said the suspect came to a stop near 123rd Street and Antioch Road. At that point, there was a confrontation. Police said both men had guns, shot at one another and killed one another. The suspect died at the scene. Mosher died at the hospital.
Donchez reiterated Monday morning Mosher had a calling to be a police officer and died doing what he loved.
