KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A man swinging a baseball bat and breaking windows was shot and killed by Kansas City, Kan. police on Saturday. Residents of the Argentine neighborhood spent the day replacing those windows.
Around 7:20 Saturday morning KCK police responded to reports of a white male in his mid-twenties who had been smashing car windows with a baseball bat at South 37th and Strong Avenue.
Police said the suspect lunged at an officer while swinging the bat, which prompted another officer to shoot the man, killing him instantly.
Krystal Hood, who was in her car trying to head out for the day said the man with the baseball bat, approached her. He swung at her and her car, shattering the windows.
“I’m still shaky!” Hood said. “Glass came flying at me from the inside of the car, so I came flying out of the car asking what happened,” she said. “You could tell in his eyes, there was something, there was something wrong,” she adds, “He was on something.”
Neighbors heard the commotion, yelled, and took off chasing him while Hood called 911.
“Next thing you know, we`re hearing gunfire and he`s lying there in the yard, up on the street,” she said.
“When officers confronted the suspect, he lunged at officers, and officers responded with lethal force,” said Officer Patrick McCallop, with the KCK Police Department.
“The officer told him to put down the bat, so acted like he was putting down the bat. When the officer stepped to him, he swung the bat just barely missing the officer, and the other officer had shot at that point,” said Hood. “It was scary.”
The identity of the victim has not yet been released, and the officer who shot him is on routine administrative leave.
