KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rev. John Modest Miles is often a comforting face in the time of uncertainty and grief — and he was again Thursday night, hours after two officers with Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department were shot in separate incidents earlier in the day.
The KCPD chaplain walked into the police department’s East Patrol Division Station to meet with officers and pray with them.
“It’s painful to deal with the anxiety, the grief, the painfulness that is going on,” he said.
The first shooting of a KCPD officer Thursday occurred around 10:45 a.m. at Independence and Hardesty avenues.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, a robbery suspect shot a RideKC bus driver and a police officer before he was shot and arrested.
The officer, an 18-year veteran with the department, suffered was treated and released within a few hours from an area hospital.
Less than six hours later and four miles away to the south, another KCPD officer was shot around 4:40 p.m. in the area of East 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard.
KCPD Chief of Police Rick Smith said the officer was fighting for his life after being shot in the head.
Shortly before 10 p.m., the department said the unidentified officer has been released from surgery and was in stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit, but that his injuries were very serious.
It's every officer's worst nightmare.
“We’re here to share with officers, to give them strength, to pray for them, and encourage them not to give up,” Miles said. “It is our responsibility to care for our city and our responsibility to say to our city, let what is happening now stop.”
