Officer who fatally shot ex-detective will not be charged
Jun 2, 2022, 9:49 AM | Updated: 10:22 am
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A police officer in Kansas who fatally shot a former police detective during a scuffle will not be charged with a crime, officials said.
The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office and the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office investigated the November shooting of Lionel Womack and found no wrongdoing, the Kansas City Star reported. Jonathan Carter, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Tuesday that no charges will be filed against the Kansas City officer who shot Womack.
Police have said two officers confronted Womack following 911 calls about a man standing in a road pointing at the sky and trying to jump in front of traffic. Within seconds of confronting Womack, the former detective had disarmed one officer and pointed the weapon at him, leading the second officer to shoot Womack, investigators said.
The confrontation and shooting were captured on police video. Authorities have not released the names of the officers involved.
“It’s obvious they did not want to shoot him,” Police Chief Karl Oakman told the Star. “They tried everything they could.”
Womack had a tumultuous relationship with the police department in Kansas City, Kansas. Womack was hired by the department in 2007, promoted to detective in 2018, and fired in August 2020 after numerous policy violations and conduct issues, the police chief has said.
Shortly after his termination, Womack alleged in an excessive force lawsuit that a Kiowa County sheriff’s deputy intentionally drove over him on Aug. 15, 2020, during an encounter that was captured on dashcam video. The deputy denied the allegations and said he’s entitled to qualified immunity.
Court records show Womack’s wife, Z’iontae Womack, has been substituted as the plaintiff in that civil lawsuit, as the administrator of her husband’s estate. She is also a detective with the same police department.
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