Kansas City Mayor, Mark Holland, said at a news conference that Melton’s death comes at a time of alarming concerns about police targeting.
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Police Captain Robert Melton had responded to a report of several people in a vehicle shooting at a man, police said in a statement.
Tomasic told reporters it was too early to determine whether the shooting was linked to other attacks on police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
A suspect in a drive-by shooting fatally shot a 17-year veteran of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department on Tuesday as the officer was sitting in his patrol auto, police said. A suspect is in custody, but the person’s name hadn’t been released because no charges had been filed by Tuesday night, hours after the shooting.
The Kansas City Star reported that police swarmed the area where the shooting took place, some of them holding rifles.
Police said the person was being questioned along with another person suspected over the initial drive-by shooting.
Capitan Melton did not reach to get out of his vehicle when suspects opened fire, and he was shot multiple times. Detective Brad Lancaster, 39, a nine-year veteran, was killed May 9.
Outside the hospital where Melton died, local Baptist preacher Jimmie Banks – a friend of the city’s mayor – sat dejected on a bench, head lowered, after attending the news conference announcing the officer’s passing. She watched for a few minutes as paramedics worked on the officer.
She says officers who watched her lay the wreath were grieving just like everybody else. Melton was taken to the University of Kansas Hospital just before 2.30pm in Kansas City. He said if there is anything they could do to ease the pain in Texas and Louisiana, they would do it in a heartbeat. The suspects fled when officers arrived, and one of them was arrested at the scene.
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Officers who patrol the streets of Kansas City, MO, the city where Gavin Long lived, are heartbroken over what happened in Baton Rouge.
