Eric DeValkenaere, the former Kansas City, Missouri, police detective who was convicted of two felonies in the December 2019 shooting death of Cameron Lamb, was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday.

DeValkenaere was convicted on one count of second-degree manslaughter and one count of armed criminal action.

Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs, who presided over DeValkenaere’s bench trial in November and found him guilty, handed down the sentence Friday afternoon.

DeValkenaere was sentenced to three years for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and six years for the armed criminal action conviction.

The sentence will run concurrently, meaning he will serve six years.

Defense attorneys for DeValkenaere will appeal his conviction, but the brief couldn’t be filed until after the sentencing, according to lead attorney Molly Hastings.

Youngs previously ruled that DeValkenaere will remain free on bond, as he has throughout the legal process so far, during the forthcoming appeal.

DeValkenaere's conviction on one count of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, a Class E felony, carried a maximum four-year sentence.

Armed criminal action carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years with a maximum of 15 years.

The central issue of the case against DeValkenaere hinged on whether he and Troy Schwalm, the other detective present on Lamb’s property during the shooting, had the legal right to be there.

Youngs ultimately ruled that without a warrant, without the presumption a warrant would have been granted and without permission to enter the property, DeValkenaere had violated Lamb’s civil rights, making the conduct reckless.

The Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office asked for Youngs to impose a nine-year sentence.

DeValkenaere was indicted in June 2020 by a Jackson County grand jury.

Lamb’s family, which has been outspoken about what it viewed as an unnecessary killing, has filed a wrongful-death civil lawsuit against DeValkenaere and the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners on behalf of Lamb’s three children.

This story was originally published by Tod Palmer of KSBH in Kansas City, Missouri.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, police detective who shot and killed a Black man in December 2019 has been found guilty.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Dale Youngs announced the verdict Friday, a week after Det. Eric DeValkenaere’s four-day trial wrapped up on Nov. 12.

It was a bench trial, so no jury was seated, and Youngs ruled on the case alone.

A Jackson County grand jury indicted DeValkenaere in June 2020, and he was charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, which are both felonies.

Friday, the judge announced the court found DeValkenaere guilty of both the lesser charge of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Youngs' ruling focused primarily on whether or not DeValkenaere and his partner had a right to be on the property.

Determining they did not, the judge said the pair were the initial aggressors and escalated a situation that had previously been deescalated.

As police officers, Youngs said, the detectives had a duty to retreat from the interaction.

The judge will set a sentencing hearing after meeting with counsel for both parties. DeValkenaere will remain free on bond until that time.

DeValkenaere, who started with KCPD in 1999 and was assigned to the investigations division, has been reassigned to an "administrative assignment" within the Executive Services Bureau since being charged, according to the department.

KSHB has reached out to KCPD about DeValkenaere's employment status following his felony convictions Friday.

The trial, initially scheduled to begin in July, was delayed four months and reassigned to Youngs last summer.

There was never a dispute about whether DeValkenaere killed Lamb. Still, the issue was whether he acted reasonably or recklessly, flouted the constitution, and possibly planted evidence to ensure he’d be acquitted as the prosecution contended.

DeValkenaere’s trial is believed to be the first for a KCPD officer to kill someone in the line of duty since 1942.

According to archived articles from The Kansas City Star, two officers were acquitted of second-degree murder after shooting and killing Harrison J. Ware on July 26, 1941, during a raid at the Autumn Leaf club.

DeValkenaere trial recap

DeValkenaere and his partner in KCPD’s Violent Offenders Unit, Det. Troy Schwalm, were guided to Lamb’s house by a police helicopter after another member of the unit, Det. Adam Hill reported seeing a red truck chasing a purple Ford Mustang at high speeds in the area.

Hill lost sight of the vehicles, but a KCPD surveillance helicopter found a car matching the description driving erratically in the area and followed it as Lamb returned home and started to park the vehicle behind the house.

There were no 911 calls placed about the chase and no calls indicating that the red truck had been involved in a crime beyond traffic violations.

KCPD’s policy regarding vehicle pursuits doesn’t allow patrol officers to chase vehicles except in the case of a serious felony, and officers with the Violent Offenders Unit aren’t permitted to participate in chases because their covert cars aren’t equipped with emergency lights or sirens.

Despite that, DeValkenaere and Schwalm responded to Lamb’s house to “investigate” whether a violent crime had occurred or was occurring despite no evidence that one had taken place, no indication Lamb had a weapon, and no complaining witness.

Schwalm arrived first in an unmarked Chevrolet Impala at the house on College Avenue, parked in a shared driveway on the south side of the property, and exited his vehicle with his service weapon drawn before heading into the backyard.

DeValkenaere arrived moments later in an unmarked GMC Sierra. He also drew his weapon before heading to the backyard of the property on the north side.

Neither Schwalm nor DeValkenaere asked Lamb’s roommate, Roberta Merritt, who was sitting on the porch when the detectives arrived, for permission to enter the property.

Schwalm testified that he contacted Lamb, who attempted to back the red truck into a narrow underground garage behind the house, but he refused commands to turn off the vehicle and step out of it.

It’s unclear if Lamb heard or understood Schwalm’s commands because he never responded. According to testimony from both officers, he also never looked at DeValkenaere after he approached the vehicle from the other side.

Schwalm, who was standing a few feet off the front driver’s side of the truck, said he remembered seeing Lamb’s hand with his fingers “splayed” out on the steering wheel at some point during the seconds-long encounter.

DeValkenaere, who kicked over a barbecue grill that served as a makeshift fence to enter the backyard, said from his vantage point looking through the truck’s passenger window, he saw Lamb begin to raise “a full-size polymer pistol” between the door and steering wheel aimed in Schwalm’s direction.

During the 9-second encounter from when DeValkenaere started toward the backyard to when he opened fire, the KCPD detective testified that he saw Lamb reach for the pistol but didn’t immediately fire because Lamb “posed no threat” and he thought he was attempting to hide the gun.

Schwalm said he never saw a weapon.

After seeing Lamb allegedly lift the gun toward his partner, DeValkenaere fired four rounds, shooting Lamb in the left upper chest — the fatal shot — as well as the right leg.

Neither Lamb nor Schwalm fired a weapon.

After he was shot, Lamb’s truck rolled backward down the sloped entrance to the garage and came to rest at an angle against the back of the garage.

It would be more than 20 minutes before emergency medical personnel, who declared Lamb dead, were allowed into the garage to assess his injuries.

During that time, arriving KCPD tactical personnel entered and cleared the garage of danger. Some officers testified to seeing a gun, but others said they never saw the weapon that police investigators reported finding on the garage floor below Lamb’s left hand, which came to rest hanging out of the open driver’s side window.

Merritt testified that she knew Lamb, who ran a mechanic business from the house, owned a gun and often kept it in the truck, but she said she saw it on the garage steps that morning — not far from where it was eventually found — when Lamb wasn’t home.

Pool/Jill Toyoshiba, The Kansas City Star

The prosecution insinuated that evidence detailed in police reports might have been staged or manufactured, including the location of the gun and items found on Lamb’s body that weren’t initially discovered at the scene but showed up during the autopsy on Dec. 4, 2019, at the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Officer.

Prosecutors — including trial attorney Tim Dollar, who assisted the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on the case — questioned why DeValkenaere could be heard on a voicemail captured after Lamb placed a call shortly before the shooting yelled “keep your hands up” unless his hands had been up at the time of the shooting.

They also questioned why DeValkenaere relayed information about other parties possibly having been at the house earlier in the day with weapons when he had no evidence of any such activity.

DeValkenaere said he overheard Merritt tell other officers who arrived on the scene after the shooting about a fight between Lamb and his ex-girlfriend. He radioed out after KCPD dispatch asked if there were any suspects at-large connected to the fatal incident.

What led police to Lamb’s house?

Lamb and his live-in girlfriend, Shanice Reed, have been in a fight that turned physical that morning, and she had moved out.

Both Lamb and Reed left the house on College Avenue in separate vehicles after the fight to go to her relative’s house. Police were not called about the altercation.

Reed returned later that day with friends and family to gather her belongings, which Lamb had moved to the curb, and another verbal altercation took place. Again, police were never called.

Lamb threw lugnuts at Reed as she left before she stopped her Mustang near Lamb’s truck as she pulled away. He ran down the block after her before she drove off when he got into his truck — which the defense said was stolen — and gave chase.

That chase went past Hill near the Blue Valley Market, and DeValkenaere said he later saw Lamb’s truck run a red light, but he testified that he never saw a purple Mustang. The police helicopter, which started to canvass the area after Hill radioed in the chase, also never spotted the Mustang.

The prosecution contended that DeValkenaere — and Schwalm, who is not charged in connection with Lamb’s death — illegally entered the property before shooting Lamb, making his conduct reckless and criminal.

With no evidence of a violent crime, no evidence of weapons, no calls for service from the public, no active police pursuit, no exigent circumstances to believe someone at the College Avenue residence was in danger, no search warrant, and no permission to enter the property, DeValkenaere acted unconstitutionally in manufacturing the encounter with Lamb, prosecutors said.

DeValkenaere admitted that he had no “probable cause” that a violent crime had taken place but that he had “reasonable suspicion,” which is a different legal standard that doesn’t include direct evidence of a crime.

Pool/Jill Toyoshiba, The Kansas City Star

According to prosecutors, that Schwalm and DeValkenaere were in plainclothes and driving unmarked vehicles made the civil-rights violation especially egregious.

A legal expert for the defense argued that guidance from the KCPD helicopter, Hill’s eye-witness account of the vehicle chase, and DeValkenaere’s intuition as a law enforcement officer honed over two decades created a legal justification for entering the property to investigate.

The defense also said that DeValkenaere had an obligation to follow Schwalm into the backyard rather than leave him alone after leaving behind the house.

DeValkenaere also testified under oath that he saw Lamb with a gun and never asked any fellow officers to plant evidence or alter reports related to the case.

Involuntary manslaughter is a Class C felony, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence under Missouri law.

According to Missouri law, armed criminal action carries a minimum three-year sentence and maximum 15-year sentence, which must be served consecutively — or in addition to — any underlying conviction.

In civil court, Lamb’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against DeValkenaere and the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners.

Lamb’s mother, Laurie Bey, acknowledged that her son was “imperfect” but said he was a good person and father to three young boys in the days after the shooting.

Dale Messing

When protests erupted in Kansas City and across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, Lamb’s name was among those invoked by protesters seeking local reform.

Tod Palmer at KSHB first reported this story.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson launched into an impassioned and unprompted defense of the St. Louis couple seen waving guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last month and later suggested that President Donald Trump has taken an interest in the situation.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were seen on video June 28, brandishing an AR-15 rifle and a handgun while confronting protesters marching through the Portland Place neighborhood, where the McCloskeys live.

Police in St. Louis executed a search warrant at the McCloskey home Friday at the behest of St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office. The couple’s lawyer said police seized an AR-15 from the house and that the couple had previously surrendered the handgun.

On Tuesday, after introducing a new grant program for small businesses during a press conference, Parson told reporters that he wanted “to address the McCloskey situation in St. Louis.”

Parson said the McCloskeys were using the Castle Doctrine to protect their property from protesters, “which they had every right to do.”

During his time as a state legislator, Parson helped expand the Castle Doctrine in Missouri — a stand-your-ground law that permits property owners to use any means deemed necessary, including deadly force, to protect themselves and their property when threatened.

Parson said police weren’t notified of the situation before reiterating “that couple had every right to protect their property."

He then slammed the District Attorney's office, without directly naming Gardner, for reportedly considering an indictment in the case.

“What they should not go through is a prosecutor attempting to take their constitutional rights away by filing charges against them for protecting their property,” Parson said.

He then said it was very difficult to remove an elected official — like Gardner — from office, calling it “one of the things we need to address in future sessions.”

It was at that point Parson invoked the White House.

“I just got off the phone with the president of the United States before I walked out here today,” Parson said. “He understands the situation in Missouri. He understands the situation in St. Louis — and how out of control it is for a prosecutor to let violent criminals off and not do their job and try to attack law-abiding citizens.”

Parson said Trump promised to do “everything he could within his powers to help with this situation and that he would be taking action to do that.”

“I’m thankful that he’s getting involved in the situation,” Parson said "... I’m thankful that he’s going to stand up for people and their legal rights.”

After opening up to questions, Parson acknowledged that “all I know is what I’ve heard” about the McCloskey case and that “I don’t know all the details of it,” but that “it’s quite evident they are standing on their property.”

“I think the president and the attorney general of the United States (William Barr) are going to take a look at it,” Parson said.

He later added, “The president doesn’t like what he’s seeing and the way these people are being treated. I know the attorney general was represented on that phone call today, so I think you’ll see some sort of actions. I think they’re going to look into things.”

Parson plans to have follow-up conversations with Trump after expressing his concern over the limited power the Missouri governor has to remove other elected officials, among other things.

“I don’t want to make it sound like he’s going to come in here and remove somebody from office, but I’m going to guarantee you the president’s focused on what’s happening here,” Parson said.

Parson has a press conference planned for Wednesday when he is likely to announce details of a special session about violent crime in Missouri.

The governor declined to discuss specifics of the special session. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for a special session on police reform since George Floyd’s death in late May sparked protests nationwide about policing and racism.

“My biggest concern right now for the state of Missouri is violent crime, homicides,” Parson said. “... We have to give the law enforcement officers the tools they need to fight violent crime. And, right now, more important than anything, we’ve got to stand up for these law enforcement officers that are dealing with violent crime.”

He blamed the protests for detracting from an officers’ ability to focus on “the street crimes that are happening out there and these violent crime situations.”

This story was originally published by Tod Palmer on KSHB in Kansas City, Missouri.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former Chiefs assistant linebackers coach Britt Reid has been charged with driving while intoxicated in connection with a Feb. 4 crash that left a 5-year-old girl with a brain injury.

The Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced Monday that Reid has been charged with DWI, a class D felony with a potential jail sentence of one to seven years. Prosecutors have requested a $100,000 bond.

Reid, who served as outside linebackers coach on his father Andy Reid's coaching staff with the Chiefs, allegedly crashed his Dodge Ram pickup into two cars on the shoulder of the road shortly after 9 p.m. on Feb. 4 — three days before the Chiefs played in Super Bowl LV — near the entrance ramp from Stadium Drive to southbound Interstate 435 near the Truman Sports Complex.

Prosecutors said they have no indication that Reid was drinking at Arrowhead Stadium.

According to a partially redacted crash report, Reid’s vehicle struck two cars, a disabled Chevrolet Impala and a Chevrolet Traverse SUV around 9 p.m. that night. Two children, including 5-year-old Ariel Young, were in the Traverse.

Young was taken to an area hospital with a life-threatening brain injury. She remained hospitalized as of March 27.

The other child in the vehicle, Young’s sister, did not suffer severe injuries.

According to a search warrant application KSHB obtained the day after the crash, Reid told a KCPD officer at the scene he had two to three drinks.

Six days after the crash, team officials said Britt Reid was no longer with the team as the organization did not renew his contract. The former outside linebackers coach worked for the Chiefs since his father joined the organization before the 2013 season.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Dia Wall and Sean Hirshberg with KSHB first reported this story.