POLICE: MAN POINTED GUN AT LOCAL OFFICERS
An incident that began with a domestic shooting at the Argosy Casino ended with the suspect being shot and killed by law enforcement officers on I-29 near KCI Airport on Thursday morning, May 1.
The domestic shooting took place about 6:30 a.m. outside the Argosy Casino and Hotel in Riverside. Police said the dispute centered between a women and two men, possibly a husband and ex-husband. One of the men shot the other multiple times in the casino parking lot, then fled the casino area in a rented U-Haul truck.
The victim in that shooting suffered injuries that were not life threatening, authorities say.
Police identified the suspect vehicle and followed it using surveillance cameras, pursuing the suspect north on I-29. Police were aided by dispatchers relaying suspect information to multiple agencies in what turned into a regional pursuit lasting about five minutes.
An attempted traffic stop on the suspect’s vehicle by Riverside police and the Platte County Sheriff’s Department was unsuccessful. Eventually the suspect’s vehicle came to a stop on I-29 near I-435 about five miles south of Platte City around 6:40 a.m. after officers with the Kansas City Police Department had deployed stop sticks to deflate the tires on the suspect’s vehicle.
After his vehicle came to rest, the suspect refuse to exit his truck. Officers on scene negotiated with the man for about 30 minutes.
Eventually the suspect got out of his vehicle and pointed his gun at officers, police say. Two Riverside police officers and one Platte County Sheriff’s Department deputy shot the suspect, said Officer Alayna Gonzalez, spokesperson for the KCPD.
The suspect was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. No law officers were injured in the shooting.
The deceased suspect was later identified as Dustin J. Johnson, age 36, of Kansas City in Platte County.
The Kansas City Police Department is conducting the investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
In a media briefing on Thursday morning, Gonzalez told reporters that “no officer gets up in the morning with the desire or intent of getting involved in a shooting and killing somebody. It gets very, very, very difficult for an officer that is put in a situation where use of force and lethal force is necessary.”
She added that officers used lethal force in this situation to protect officers and civilians in the vicinity of the busy interstate.
“The individual had already shown a propensity for violence by shooting another individual multiple times,” she said.
She remarked that officers had tried for 30 minutes to get the suspect to peacefully surrender and “did everything they could to make this end easily.”
A handgun that police said belonged to the suspect was recovered at the scene.
Northbound I-29 was closed just before 7 a.m. and remained closed for several hours while authorities processed the scene.
