Last week, the Lenexa Police Department released bodycam footage from both police officers involved in the fatal June 22 shooting of Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon, 25.
The video footage, alongside a recording of the 911 call that prompted the officers’ response to the scene at a Lenexa apartment complex, shed more light on the moments leading up to the shooting, as well as its immediate aftermath.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon that he won’t bring charges against two officers who were on scene that night.
Only one of the officers, both of whom were not named by Howe in his presentation, fired his weapon, doing so eight times at Chacon while Chacon sat in a parked vehicle with what the officer believed to be a handgun in his lap.
Howe said the officer’s use of force was justified because he “reasonably believed that his life and the life of Officer ‘B’ was in danger,” according to a press release from the district attorney’s office that came with Howe’s public presentation.
Following the press conference, the Lenexa Police Department released the audio recording of the 911 phone call that led up to the shooting, as well as bodycam footage of both officers who responded.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team (OICIIT), which includes officers from multiple law enforcement agencies across the county, handled the investigation.
The video released by the Lenexa Police Department is a compilation of a three-minute introduction by Lenexa Police Chief Dawn Layman, the 911 call that caused police to respond and body camera footage from the two responding officers and one of their vehicles.
That video is available to be viewed at this link.
Chacon was hanging out with friends prior to the shooting
A 12-page report from the district attorney’s office lays out a timeline for the events leading up to the shooting.
On Saturday, June 21, Chacon was invited to hang with a friend and his girlfriend, who were not named in the report, at the pool at the Lenexa Crossings Apartment, 12445 W. 97th Terrace.
When Chacon arrived, he appeared to already be under the influence of alcohol and proceeded to drink “numerous beers,” according to the two friends in the District Attorney’s report.
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Open in new tab As the night continued, Chacon’s behavior was “concerning” to his friends. At one point, he pulled out a gun, later discovered to be an unloaded Co2-powered pellet gun, and pointed it at the two friends, according to the report.
At one point, he pressed the muzzle of the pellet gun against the chest of his friend’s girlfriend, which investigator’s confirmed because her DNA was found on that part of the gun. Shortly after, she was able to leave and at some point, made the 911 call that dispatched Lenexa officers to the apartment.
After the friend’s girlfriend left, she began to receive text messages from her boyfriend that he was afraid of being shot by Chacon and that he pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger a few times.
During the press conference, Howe said he believed that no pellets were fired because the gun wasn’t loaded.
An unspecified time after pointing the gun, Chacon said he wanted to kill his friend and himself. After that, both his friend and he walked to their cars. Chacon remained in his car, a Volkswagen Jetta, while the friend left.
The district attorney’s report doesn’t specify the timeline before the girlfriend called 911, nor does it indicate how long Chacon and the two others were at the pool before they dispersed.
Chacon’s friend’s girlfriend called 911
At about 3 a.m., Lenexa Police received a call from the friend’s girlfriend, a Spanish-speaking woman who, through an interpreter that was on the line, said “she saw a guy shooting another guy in the pool.”
Shortly after, the interpreter clarified that she said “he has not shoot [sic] him yet, he is just putting the gun on the head of the other guy, but nothing has happened yet. I’m just here, closer to the pool so please send the police now.”
The 911 operator dispatched police to the Lenexa Crossing Apartments for a call of an armed disturbance, saying that a man was holding a gun to another man’s head, possibly at the apartment complex’s pool.
While the DA’s report later confirmed that the caller was the girlfriend of Chacon’s friend’s, she had instead identified herself as a bystander during the 911 call, noting that she was at the complex to drop a friend off.
The girlfriend also told the 911 dispatcher that she last saw the two men 15 minutes before she called 911, adding that she could no longer see them because she got scared.
Police’s encounter with Chacon lasted roughly 10 seconds
The sequence of the police officers’ bodycam video released by Lenexa PD starts with the officers arriving at the complex at about 3:04 a.m.
The bodycam footage of “Officer A”, who later shot and killed Chacon, is on the top left portion of the screen in a composite view of multiple cameras at once. The bodycam footage of “Officer B” is on the top right. Footage from “Officer A”‘s vehicle dash cam is at the bottom.
The bodycam video of “Officer A” begins with him parking. In the video, the officer’s gun is already drawn.
Lenexa Police Chief Dawn Layman said that follows police protocol.
“They don’t know where in this area they’re going to encounter somebody … I believe it’s appropriate for the officers to have their weapons drawn in that case,” she said during last Thursday’s press conference, alongside Howe. “If they’re going to a specific address and they know somebody is in the house, they may not draw that gun until they get there, but because they don’t know and there’s a bunch of unknowns, it’s totally appropriate in that situation.”
After exiting the vehicle, “Officer A” approaches the driver’s side of the parked Volkswagen Jetta. He taps on the window. Chacon can be seen moving his head in the officer’s direction. A gun, which was later confirmed by Howe to be the same pellet gun reported by the 911 caller from earlier in the night, is visible in Chacon’s lap in the bodycam video.
Within one second, “Officer A” tells Chacon “Put your (expletive) hands up. Put your (expletive) hands up,or I’m going to shoot you right now. I see that gun.”
Attorneys representing Chacon’s family say that they way the officer started the interaction was excessive.
“That’s the first thing he said. He didn’t try to de-escalate. He said, ‘Put your (expletive) hands up.’ That’s how that’s how the interaction started,” said Quinn Rallins, an attorney representing Chacon’s family.
While “Officer A” shouted orders to Chacon, “Officer B” hurries to the passenger side of the vehicle. At this time, Chacon can bee seen lifting up the gun flat from his lap, with the barrel pointed at the driver’s side door, causing both officers to yell orders to Chacon to put his hands up.
While officers shouted orders, Chacon shifts the gun toward the passenger’s side of the vehicle.
One second later, “Officer A” fires eight rounds in succession through the drivers’ side window at Chacon. The offier then communicates over dispatch that shots were fired. He reports that the subject is down but still has a gun in his possession.
DA says officer’s use of force was justified
During the press conference, Howe outlined that several Kansas laws justified the officer’s use of force.
“You heard both officers screaming at a very high tone to not touch the gun, to drop it and put your hands up. None of those warnings were complied with, unfortunately, and it resulted in the unfortunate death of Mr. Cartagena [Chacon],” he added.
“Based on that standard, that subjective belief, and you apply an objective analysis, is it reasonable for an officer, based on that conduct, to feel like they should be in fear for their life, and they … have to use deadly force? And it’s my opinion that based on all the facts and applying all the law, that … they were justified in the use of deadly force, and therefore they will not face any charges in this case, and that is the finding of the district attorney,” he added.
Rallins and Thomas Bowers, the two attorneys for Chacon’s family, dispute the DA’s office’s interpretation of the footage and said they’re looking into filing lawsuits against the city of Lenexa, the Lenexa Police Department and the officers involved in the shooting.
“It’s pretty clear that the shooting is not justified,” Bowers said. “I don’t think the police announced themselves when they came up to the door. They’ve got a light shining in the young man’s face. You’re not giving him enough time to obey your commands. But when you look at the videos, you can see he’s clearly putting the (gun) down in the seat.”
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