Family members and friends are looking for answers in the case of a man who was shot and killed last month by Lenexa Police.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 22, Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon, 25, of Grandview, Missouri, was shot and killed after police officers responded to a call of a person with a gun at the Lenexa Crossing Apartments, 12445 W. 97th Terrace.
At about 3 a.m., Lenexa Police arrived at the apartment complex and located an individual, later identified as Chacon, inside of a parked car near the apartment’s pool clubhouse, according to a Lenexa PD statement.
At least one Lenexa officer discharged their firearm and Chacon was killed, Lenexa Police stated on a post on X after the incident.
Officers from at least eight agencies across the county responded to the assist call. A first responder drone was also used, according to the department’s calls for service log.
Chacon was transported by Johnson County Med-Act to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced deceased.
Since the shooting, Chacon’s friends and family members have been asking — on social media and in local media reports — for officer body cam footage of the incident to be released.
“They have not responded to the family and are withholding the evidence. It’s a right to receive evidence in such a case. Help them give their family what they rightfully deserve,” a friend of Chacon’s wrote on a post on Facebook.
A family member who was not identified told the Kansas City Star they are frustrated with the lack of answers more than a week after Chacon’s death.
“We need answers,” the person told the Star. “We want to see the video. … They’re not telling us anything.”
Since the shooting, two officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard in an officer-involved shooting, Lenexa Master Police Officer Danny Chavez, a department spokesperson, said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigation Team (OICIIT) is conducting an independent investigation into the incident, with the Olathe Police Department as the host agency, Lenexa Police said in a statement.
Lenexa Police Chief Dawn Layman met with some members of Chacon’s family and explained the investigation process, Chavez said.
“It was explained to those representatives how the OICIIT process works and that it typically takes numerous weeks (if not months) for that independent body to conclude their investigation and the [district attorney] to give a ruling,” he said.
Members of Chacon’s family did not return a request for comment from the Johnson County Post for this story.
“We want justice for our boy”
On posts on social media, family members and friends expressed shock about Chacon’s death.
“He was my brother in law and he was a good man, a great uncle and an amazing brother to all of his siblings. He had plans for his future and he was always proud of the work he created from his own two hands,” Alberto Cervantes, Chacon’s brother-in-law, wrote on Facebook.
Omar Ayala, a friend of Chacon’s, wrote on Facebook that he wanted to see justice for his friend.
“We want justice for our boy. What happened has no explanation, he was such a good friend, co-worker, good family, good human,” he wrote.
Shortly after Chacon’s death, people on Facebook started the hashtag #justiceforenrique asking for answers in the case and to have the body camera footage released.
Body cam footage does not have to be viewed by public
According to Kansas law, law enforcement agencies in Kansas are not required to publicly disclose anything that is considered a “criminal investigation record,” which includes all footage from police body and vehicle cameras.
“It is something that’s discretionary for law enforcement agencies to do and if they make the determination that they want to withhold the footage or most information related to an officer-involved shooting, they can do that,” said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, who lives in Kansas City, Kansas.
A separate Kansas statute does make allow certain people to request agencies allow them to view body camera recordings within 20 days of their request, including family members or attorneys for those in a recording, or the person subject to a recording themselves.
But even that stipulation can be problematic because it only applies to certain members of the family.
“Usually, it’s folks who are next of kin (like) a spouse or a child. I know siblings typically aren’t permitted to view it. Parents are, usually,” Bonds said. “So if (the victim’s) middle age and their parents aren’t alive anymore, they have young or no children, they can often be in situations where nobody’s able to view the footage.”
Chavez did not answer questions about if or when any members of Chacon’s family has requested the body camera footage from the fatal June 22 shooting.
Lack of transparency leaves case in dark
In multiple posts on Facebook, people who knew Chacon describe him as “kind-hearted” and “humble.”
In the aftermath of a fatal shooting, the vague details of the incident released by police and a lack of body cam footage being can be disheartening, Bonds said.
“I think it feels really unfair to so many people when their loved one is dead and they don’t have any sense of what happened,” she said. “Usually there is kind of a really vague account that the police department releases, and oftentimes it’s misleading, and it’s something that doesn’t match their experience with their loved one. It doesn’t match the behavior that they’ve ever seen them engage in.
“It can really compound the trauma and the frustration that a lot of families feel, to not be able to know exactly what happened, particularly if you know kind of what’s being described or what’s being alluded to doesn’t seem like the person that they loved who’s no longer here and doesn’t have a chance to defend themselves,” she added.
Chavez, the Lenexa Police spokesperson, said the department is maintaining communication with the family as the investigation continues.
“I know that Mr. Chacon has a large family and that this is (a) very difficult time for them, understandably,” he told the Post. “I also understand that some family members may have different feelings amongst themselves about this process, but I will reiterate that we’ve been in regular contact with multiple representatives of his family.”
Friends and family are fundraising for funeral
While those who knew Chacon wait for more information on the incident, they’re honoring his memory.
Starting at 8 a.m. Sunday, they will be hosting pupusas sales at John Anderson Pavilion Park, 4701 E. 135th St., in Grandview, Missouri. All proceeds will benefit Chacon’s family to pay for funeral expenses.
Go deeper: One person dead in Lenexa officer-involved shooting early Sunday at apartments
