After two years, details of two Kansas City, Kansas, police shootings ...

Within a three-month period in 2023, Kansas City, Kansas, police shot and killed two men. The district attorney ruled both killings were justified.

But until now, few details were made public. On Friday, the Kansas City Police Department, who investigated both cases on behalf of KCKPD, released the entire case files — including body camera video — under the Missouri Sunshine Law.

Some details about the shooting of 25-year-old Amaree’ya Henderson in April 2023 were already known after Henderson’s mother sued the officer who shot him, the KCK police and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas.

But the public knew little about the killing of 50-year-old John Anderton in February 2023.

Anderton was in his sister’s house in the early evening when two people in the house overdosed, according to the investigation. Police and paramedics were called but Anderton left on his bicycle as police arrived.

At 5:54 p.m., Officer Colin Ward arrived, was told a man in a red coat left on a bike and went looking for him. Two minutes later and just a couple of blocks down Rowland Avenue, he found Anderton walking his bike, according to the KCPD investigation.

Body cam video shows Ward pull up and start to question Anderton about why he left the house when people were in need. “There wasn’t anything I could do,” Anderton answered. The exchange was calm.

But when Ward told Anderton to put his hand on his head as he prepared to arrest him, Anderton dropped the bike and ran towards nearby woods.

“I could see that he was physically trying to remove an object from his pocket. I remember seeing him turn, I saw his hand kind of in a fist shape and I just saw silver,” Ward told KCPD detectives.

Ward yelled for Anderton to “stop reaching” and then he fired 12 rounds.

“Officer involved. 10-38, my location,” Ward yelled into his radio. “I still have him at gunpoint, I think he has a gun in his hand. I need a shield,” he told KCK dispatch, referring to a bulletproof ballistic shield. After firing 12 times, Ward put a fresh clip in his gun.

Anderton was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the autopsy report, Ward hit Anderton five times, including twice in the back and once in the back of his head. A silver .22 caliber revolver was found at Anderton’s feet. Anderton’s younger brother, Eric Anderton, told investigators that night that his brother found that gun and it didn’t even work.

“If you have a fake gun, are you gonna pull it on someone that has a real gun? No, that doesn’t make no sense to me,” he told KCPD detectives.

In a statement almost seven months later, Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree, in a quarter-page statement, found that Ward “acted within the bounds of the law.” He added that Anderton did not comply with police orders and a gun was found at the scene.

Anderton wasn’t the first person Ward shot on the job.

In May, 2020 Ward and another KCK officer responded to an apartment complex where they discovered a stolen F-150 Ford Raptor truck, according to a federal lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the officers saw an “African American male entered the Raptor and left the driver’s side door open.”

The lawsuit says both officers ran toward the truck, where Ward’s partner tasered the man, Joshua Brunson. The truck lurched forward. Ward and his partner backed away from the Raptor, “while drawing their firearms and firing indiscriminately,” the lawsuit says. “Ward emptied the clip of his firearm and reloaded.”

Brunson was hit four times and almost died from blood loss, according to the lawsuit.

Brunson, it turns out, was “hired to clean and detail the Raptor,” the lawsuit said.

There was an attempt to settle the case last year, according to online federal court records. The lawsuit was dismissed last April at the request of Brunson’s lawyers.

More details have been made public about the April 2023 shooting death of Amaree’ya Henderson by KCK Officer Austin Schuler, due to a lawsuit filed by his mother.

Henderson was making DoorDash deliveries the night he was stopped by Schuler. The KCPD investigation revealed he made his last food delivery about a mile and a half from where he was stopped.

In his interview with KCPD detectives, Schuler said he made the stop because of an expired temporary tag and a bad headlight. After running his license and discovering Henderson had no warrants, Schuler went back to the car where Henderson’s girlfriend was Face Timing with Henderson’s mother.

“Your car smells like burnt weed so I’m going to have you step out,” Schuler said, according to his body cam video.

Henderson then started the car and put it in gear.

“Hey, don’t do that,” Schuler yells as he jumps on the doorframe as the car speeds away. A few seconds later Schuler yells, “I’ll shoot you,” before two shots are fired. Henderson’s car hit the back of a parked SUV.

Body cam footage shows Henderson’s blood flowing onto the pavement and both airbags deployed. His girlfriend, Shakira Hill, was ordered out of the car. Footage shows her on her knees about ten feet away from the car. “Please call for help,” she cried. “Please don’t let him die.”

Henderson died at the hospital. He was shot in the cheek, upper left arm and his spinal cord was nicked, according to the autopsy report.

Dupree also ruled this shooting justified because Schuler was in “immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death.” But the lawsuit filed by Henderson’s mother, Pauletta Johnson, claimed Shuler put himself in danger.

“Defendant Schuler’s act of jumping onto the doorframe of a moving vehicle was contrary to KCKPD policies and law enforcement standards regarding self-imposed jeopardy,” the lawsuit said. The suit was filed in July and is ongoing.

For two years, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas fought to keep records of these two shootings from the public. Under the Kansas Open Records Act, police investigations can stay closed forever.

But because the Kansas City, Missouri, police department investigated the shootings, the records fell under Missouri Sunshine Law, which says all investigative records are open after the case is final. In both these cases, the district attorney did not charge, ending the investigations.

The Kansas City Star and KCUR requested the investigative case files from KCPD in October. The Unified Government fought the release of the records and lost.