Friday, Nov. 13, will be the 49th Annual Metropolitan Chiefs and Sheriffs Association Awards for Valor. This event honors officers across the metro area for acts of bravery and heroism, and many KCPD members will be recognized. While this event has happened for nearly 50 years, the year during which these officers performed these acts has been anything but ordinary. We are under more scrutiny than ever before, but still, these officers did not hesitate to run toward danger and put themselves at great risk of harm.
The ceremony will stream live on KCPD’s YouTube Channel. Missouri awards will be presented at 10 a.m., followed by Kansas awards
at 11:30 a.m. (The ceremony had to be split this year to accommodate social
distancing.)
Some of these incidents you may have heard about, like the
officers who stopped a vehicle on the Super Bowl parade route in February.
Others, you may have heard a little about – such as our officers getting shot –
but didn’t realize all of the heroism behind the scenes. Here are just a few of
the Kansas City Missouri Police officers who will be receiving awards and what
they did:
Domestic
Violence Rescue
Officers Jared Littleton, Devin Jackson and Dakota Stone were all dispatched at
1:30 a.m. July 3, 2019, to an address in the East Patrol Division area, in regard
to an armed man. As they neared the address, three children came running
towards their police vehicles and told the officers their step-father was
cutting their mother with a knife.
As they approached
the doorway to enter the home, they announced themselves and saw a man with his
back to the officers, pinning a woman against the wall. The officers heard a
woman scream, “Help me, he is going to kill me!”
The officers
immediately gave verbal commands to the man to drop the knife and get on the
ground. After a few tense moments, the man finally complied, dropped the knife
and laid on the ground where he was taken into custody.
The woman was safe
from the threat, but she had a severe cut on her left thumb from where the man
had cut her with the knife. She told officers the man was her husband and this
was not the first time he had threatened to kill her. During this particular
incident, she was standing in the living room when her husband grabbed a knife
from the kitchen and told her to go the bedroom. She did and the man followed
her, but he stopped at her daughter’s room, pointed the knife at her and
demanded her cell phone so she couldn’t call the police. During the
confrontation, the woman’s son came out of his room yelling, “No daddy, don’t
kill my mom!” The man said he didn’t care, he knew the police were coming and
he was going to kill her tonight and began to attack her.
Thankfully, the
officers arrived quickly and made decisive actions, saving the woman and her
children from a potentially life-threatening situation, while keeping
themselves and the man safe from injuries.
Triple-Homicide
Suspects Caught Red-Handed
Officers Cody Halterman and Levi Plaschka had been
concentrating their patrol efforts on the area of 45th and Benton in
October 2019 because a great deal of shootings and narcotics activity were
taking place there. On the night of October 17, 2019, they were in that area
and heard two groups of gunshots on the same block where they were. They saw a
woman carrying a rifle enter a parked car and another man standing nearby. Then
they saw a man lying in the street behind the car.
They ordered the woman out of the car, and Officer Plaschka
took her into custody. As he was doing so, Officer Halterman heard footsteps
and turned to see the man standing by the car running away. Officer Halterman
ran after him and eventually caught him in the backyard of a home in the 4500
block of Chestnut.
Meanwhile, Officer Plaschka looked in the car the woman had
been in and saw the rifle in the front passenger seat. He then checked on the
man lying on the street and found him dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
Once additional officers arrived, Officer Plaschka did a
canvass of the immediate area to check for any other possible victims. He found
a house with the front door hanging open. He discovered two more victims
inside, dead from gunshot wounds. He cleared the rest of the house, finding no
one else inside.
Subsequent investigation revealed the woman with the rifle
and the man Officer Halterman chased down were responsible for the killing of
all three victims, and the rifle was the murder weapon. Because the officers
immediately caught both suspects “red-handed,” both suspects were quickly
charged with first-degree murder and multiple other charges in the triple
homicide.
Officers Stop Bus Shooter
A Kansas City Missouri Police officer who was injured in a shooting on July 2 of this year thankfully survived.
The call started mid-morning with a distress signal from a Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) bus operator. She had just witnessed a stealing at Independence Avenue and Wilson Avenue and the suspect had just entered her bus after committing the theft. The driver stopped the bus at Independence Ave. and Hardesty Ave., where her supervisor met her. To avoid drawing the attention of the suspect, the bus driver told the supervisor there was a problem with the bus.
As suspect got up to question the bus driver about the stop, two marked police vehicles pulled up behind the bus. Officer Sticken was alerted to the distress signal because of his unique assignment as a liaison to the KCATA. Officers Cruz and Gemell were dispatched to the call, as well. Officer Sticken got out of his vehicle and walked alongside the bus toward the front door as Officers Cruz and Gemmell followed from a distance.
The suspect noticed the officers approaching and reached into a bag he was carrying. He pulled out a handgun and began shooting at Officer Sticken from inside the bus. Officer Sticken was shot in the shoulder, after which he retreated to nearby cover and fell to the ground.
The suspect exited the bus and continued shooting at Officer Sticken as he lay on the ground. Officer Sticken recalls hearing the handgun click three times. The suspect then ran to the front of the bus and shot through the windshield, striking the bus operator. He then began to pace near the corner of the intersection, still holding the gun, as Officers Cruz and Gemmell approached him. As he saw the officers coming toward him, he shot at them, but they were able to return fire, causing the suspect to fall to the ground. He was taken into custody, and they promptly rendered aid until paramedics arrived.
Officer Sticken suffered an abrasion to his shoulder that resulted from the shots being fired at him. The bus driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The suspect also had non-life-threatening injuries. The officer was treated and released from an area hospital the same day. The suspect was charged with multiple counts relating to the shootings.
Officer Seriously Wounded, Rescued by Fellow Officers
The same day KCPD
Officer Sticken was shot, July 2, 2020, another KCPD officer was also shot,
placing him in a fight for his life.
A call came into
dispatch of a man pointing a gun at citizens at a fast food drive-through near
31st and Van Brunt. In the middle of the call, the caller said the suspect had
just tried to carjack someone and was acting erratically. Dispatch sent
Officers Nathan Anderson and Tyler Webster to the location, and on their way,
they made phone contact with the 911 caller. The caller told them the armed
suspect was walking south from the location, which the officers relayed to
other responding officers. Due to the nature of the call, Sergeant Justin
Palmer also responded. Officers Tyler Moss and Mark Diviak also responded to
assist.
As Officers Diviak
and Moss arrived to the scene, an individual began shooting at their police
vehicle. They quickly turned their vehicle around and relayed the information
to other officers. An “assist the officer” was ‘toned’ out by dispatch. The
tone is very distinctive and unforgettable.
After shooting at
the officers, the suspect ran towards a building in the 3300 block of Stadium
Drive. Officers Moss and Diviak exited their vehicle and began to walk in the
direction the suspect ran. They were quickly joined by Officers Levi Plaschka
and Landon Hartley. Sergeant Palmer and Officers Anderson and Webster also
responded. Sergeant Palmer advised all officers to slow down and to move as
safely as possible while searching for the suspect.
Officers Moss,
Diviak, Hartley and Plaschka were already moving one direction, so Sergeant
Palmer and Officers Anderson and Webster began to look for the suspect in the
other direction. Officer Jamison Raines arrived on the scene and joined the
officers. Officers Moss and Plaschka saw the suspect first and gave orders to
show his hands. The suspect immediately began shooting at the officers,
striking Officer Moss in the head.
Officer Moss
dropped to the ground. Without hesitation, Officer Plaschka stood over Officer
Moss and shot the suspect. Officers Diviak, Hartley, and Anderson quickly
grabbed Officer Moss and carried him to safety while Officer Plaschka
maintained the safety of the other officers.
After hearing the
assist the officer tone and then the fateful “officer down” radio transmission,
Sergeant Jason Childers immediately responded to the location near where
Officer Moss was with the other officers. Sergeant Childers was at the station
when the tone went out, having just left the first officer-involved shooting
scene from earlier that day. Officer Alisha Shockley also responded to the
assist call. With the scene still not safe or secure, Sergeant Childers drove
to where the officers had Moss, and they put him into the back of the
sergeant’s vehicle. Officer Alisha Shockley jumped into the vehicle and
immediately applied pressure to the injury, while Officer Diviak stayed by
Officer Moss’ side the entire drive to the hospital. The decision to take
Officer Moss in their own vehicle was a matter of life or death. One of Moss’
doctors said at a later press conference. “If his colleagues waited for EMS –
and that’s no knock on EMS – but this type of injury, minutes and seconds are
vital,”
At the scene,
Sergeant Palmer maintained his composure over the radio and continued to clear
the location with the remaining officers. There was information from the
original call indicating there was another armed individual with the suspect.
After a thorough search, it was determined that there was only one suspect
involved. The suspect died as a result of his injuries.
Officer Moss was
rushed into surgery and remained in critical condition. His coworkers and many
on the Department were at the hospital supporting him and his family the entire
time. After two weeks of ICU care, miraculously he no longer needed breathing
assistance and had become more alert. He started physical therapy and was able
to stand with assistance. On July 23, just three weeks after doctors gave him
just a 1% chance of survival, he was released from the hospital to continue his
healing at a rehabilitation facility out of state. The facility focused on
brain injury and neurological rehabilitation and recovery. He was able to come
home to Kansas City a few weeks ago.
All the officers
involved displayed courage and bravery, and each played a vital role in saving
the life of Officer Moss and the keeping the people of Kansas City safe.
These are just a
few of the extraordinary acts officers have performed, and they are only the
ones from KCPD. Many more from other metro-area agencies will be recognized on
Friday. At a time when many people question every move officers make, your
metro-area officers still do not hesitate to lay their lives on the line to
save others.
Our dedication to duty is unwavering. We have answered and will continue to answer every call for help, no matter the person’s politics, beliefs, socioeconomic status, race or even COVID-19 diagnosis. In a pandemic, in civil unrest, or on just an otherwise unremarkable day, KCPD and our metro-area partners will be there when you need help, no matter what.
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