A KCK police officer shot & killed Amaree’ya Henderson last week. Here’s what we know

Last Wednesday evening, a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas shot and killed 25-year-old Amaree’ya Henderson during a traffic stop, with his girlfriend in the passenger seat.

Henderson’s mother was on her way to them, listening in on the encounter through a FaceTime call, when she heard the gunshots.

“He told me to come because he was scared for his life,” his mother, Pauletta Johnson, told The Star last week. “He’s been hurt before by the police, (and) he was scared.”

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department is investigating the shooting as part of an agreement between the neighboring departments.

One week later, police have been relatively silent, releasing little information about the incident.

But Johnson and Shakira Hill, Henderson’s girlfriend who was in the car, have spoken with The Star about what happened.

Here’s a recap of what we know about the case so far, based on reporting by The Star’s Bill Lukitsch, Anna Spoerre and Glenn Rice.

Why did police pull Henderson over?

The short answer is: We don’t know.

Hill said that on Wednesday night, she and Henderson had completed a DoorDash delivery in the Argentine neighborhood of KCK and were on their way to see Henderson’s 2-year-old nephew.

Around 8:30 p.m., an officer pulled their vehicle over near the 12th Street bridge that crosses the Kansas River for a “traffic violation,” according to KCPD spokesperson Donna Drake.

The KCPD has not provided details beyond that regarding the reason for the stop.

Hill said that she and Henderson asked the officer multiple times why they had been pulled over, but that the officer did not provide them with a reason.

She said Henderson was not violating any traffic laws. Johnson said her son may have had expired tags on his car, but that hasn’t been confirmed.

What happened after Henderson got pulled over?

Hill said the officer asked for Henderson’s license and registration and that he provided them.

While waiting for the officer to look up his information, Henderson asked Hill to call his mother on FaceTime. Hill said that “something felt off” about the encounter, and that Henderson was visibly frightened — he had a previous traumatic experience with police that Hill and Johnson said put him on edge.

Two more police cars pulled up to the scene, Hill said, and Johnson stayed on FaceTime as she headed to the couple’s location.

Hill said the officer told Henderson to get out of the car and that Henderson told him he wanted to wait until his mother arrived.

Then Johnson, who was still watching through FaceTime, said she saw the officer half-crawl through her son’s car window and begin “grabbing, pulling, punching (and) stomping” him.

Hill said Henderson began to back up his car, saying that he wanted to get to a more public location.

She said she advised him to stay put and that he began to pull over to stop the car again when an officer shot him twice, killing him.

The KCPD has described the encounter as “a confrontation,” and said the officer had minor injuries. The department declined to elaborate further.

Who was Amaree’ya Henderson?

Loved ones described Henderson as a respectful, hardworking son and brother with big dimples and a love for expensive shoes.

He was a devoted partner to Hill, his girlfriend of three years whom he had known since middle school. On the day of his death, Hill said the couple had taken a walk in the park to daydream about building a home and starting a family together.

Henderson graduated from Central High School, where he played baseball and football.

His mother, Johnson, said he used to want to be a police officer, until an incident happened at age 18, when she said he was wrongly handcuffed and beaten by an officer.

Hill and Johnson said he had been doing DoorDash deliveries lately to make some extra cash.

Did Henderson have a gun the night he was killed?

There is no evidence that Henderson had a gun. Both Hill and Johnson have said that he was unarmed and did not have a gun in the car.

The KCPD has not reported that any weapon was found at the scene, but declined to answer this question directly.

Are police allowed to fire shots into a moving vehicle?

Not usually. KCKPD policy states that officers are only allowed to fire shots at a moving vehicle if they are facing a “direct, immediate deadly force confrontation.”

This “deadly force” can come from the vehicle itself or the person inside it, but officers are not allowed to create this confrontation by placing themselves in the vehicle’s way.

Many law enforcement groups, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, advise that officers should not shoot at moving vehicles at all unless the occupants present a danger in some way other than the vehicle itself.

What happens next?

The KCPD’s investigation is still ongoing.

Once it’s complete, Drake said they will forward findings to the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office. The district attorney will decide whether the use of force was justified under Kansas law.

The department has not released the names of any officers involved, any body or dashboard camera footage of the encounter or many details in general.

Video from body cameras or dashboard cameras that may have captured the shooting is not open to the public under Kansas law and might never be publicly released, though the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office has in the past shared videos after completing case reviews.

Nikki Richardson, executive director and co-founder of the police accountability group Justice for Wyandotte, said her group has requested body camera footage.

Justice for Wyandotte is holding a protest on Saturday to demand the department release the footage.

In addition to the KCPD investigation, local activist organization MORE2 is recommending that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation also review the shooting, according to the group’s executive director Lora McDonald.

More information

Some relevant background: In the first four months of 2023, Kansas City, Kansas police officers shot three people. Two of those, including Henderson, died.

On Feb. 4, KCK police shot and killed a man in the 5400 block of Haskell Avenue after he allegedly fled on a bicycle from a house where two people had recently overdosed on fentanyl. Police said a gun was found at that scene.

And on April 5, KCK police were involved in a daytime shootout after an undercover drug bust went awry. Three tactical officers and three suspects were wounded by gunfire, and all suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Do you have more questions about this case? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.