During a news conference at the hospital where the officer succumbed to his wounds, Kansas City Police Chief Terry Ziegler said it happened around 2 p.m. on 1st Street, when the officer was responding to a drive-by shooting and vehicle chase.
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At 1:39 p.m., another officer spotted the vehicle in the area of 1500 Rowland. He was killed when he encountered a drive-by shooting suspect, who opened fire on Captain Melton Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting comes in the wake of deadly ambushes of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
At police headquarters, people have been leaving cards and flowers, which the department has arranged on a table draped in blue cloth and bearing Melton’s photo. Melton is alleged to have cornered at least one of the suspects before being shot several times just before 2 p.m.
Police Capt. Robert Melton died Tuesday after he was shot while responding to a police call. Kathryn Courtney, 31, of Kansas City, Kansas, brought a bouquet of yellow daisies Wednesday.
It’s the second time a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer has been shot and killed this year.
Ziegler says the agency doesn’t have body cameras, however, Melton was wearing a body vest.
Police Chief Terry Zeigler said Melton was a commander who led from the front, so it’s not surprising that he was in the field to help with the investigation.
City and community leaders took part in a news conference Wednesday.
Mayor Mark Holland said the community should do what it can to squelch a destructive attitude that seems pervasive around the country.
“The contributions that peace officers make to protect and serve – they deserve better”, he said. “Yet we all need to worry that the national climate may foster greater fear and potentially inflame otherwise normal interactions and turn them into tragedies”, Holland told the Kansas City Star. “It’s shameful this has happened”. “We know that you share our pain”.
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