A police officer died early Tuesday after a fleeing driver hit tire-deflating devices and veered into him, authorities said. His police chief said the death was “an intentional act of homicide.”
Officer Hunter Simoncic, 26, was the second law enforcement officer in Kansas City, Kansas, to die within a month. Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Deputy Elijah Ming, 34, died July 26 after being shot multiple times while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the city.
In Kansas, a conviction for intentionally killing an officer can result in a death sentence. The suspect in Simoncic's death, a 31-year-old man, has not been charged, but Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Karl Oakman said his intent was clear.
“This individual felt the need to run Hunter down and kill him,” Oakman said during a news conference.
A chase had begun after police responded to a call of shots fired on a residential street at about 12:30 a.m., according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the officer’s death. Officers saw the suspect seemingly unconscious in the driver’s seat of a truck, but as they approached, he woke up and drove away.
Oakman said the suspect then abandoned the truck for another vehicle and continued to flee. Simoncic and another officer deployed stop sticks on a major avenue through a nearby business and shopping district. Oakman said Simoncic followed standard procedures, moving to the median for his safety.
However, when the stop sticks punctured the car's tires, the driver veered into Simoncic on the median, Oakman said. The suspect kept fleeing, the KBI said, but then wrecked the vehicle and was taken into custody at about 1 a.m.
Simoncic was pronounced dead at a hospital.
