Overland Park police have gotten away with what seems to be murder in the suburban county outside of Kansas City. Below the fold you can watch two reports and videos on the Jan. 20 shooting death of 17-year-old John Albers by Overland Park officer Clayton Jenison. Jenison shot Albers as the teen backed out of his family’s garage while driving his mother’s minivan. Police were responding to calls concerning a threat of suicide Albers had allegedly made to friends over FaceTime. His parents are now suing after Johnson County prosecutor Steve Howe and his “investigation” concluded that the shooting was “justified.”
The officer “acted recklessly and deliberately” when he shot and killed Albers, who may not have known police were at his home and was “simply backing his mom’s minivan out of the family garage,” the lawsuit says.
“A vehicle passing a police officer does not give that officer an ongoing license to kill an unthreatening citizen,” it says.
It is unclear whether or not Albers even knew the police officer was at his home as he began slowly backing out of his family’s garage and down their suburban driveway. In the video you can see that Albers is potentially shot and loses control at that point, as more police vehicles happen to converge on the scene right at that time. After officer Jenison unholsters his gun and shoots twice, as Albers slowly rolls his mother’s minivan about a car’s length out of their garage, the brakes go on and then the car begins backing up and turning wildly. It is at that point that Jenison unloads another 11 or so shots into the minivan.
When they arrived at the home, two officers never “announced their presence at the residence” or even knocked on the door, the complaint alleges. Several minutes later, the family’s two-car garage door began to rise, according to the lawsuit.
Officer Jenison began moving toward the vehicle and unholstered his weapon, as Albers backed out of the garage at about 2.5 mph in a straight line, the lawsuit alleges, noting that the officer’s actions were contrary to department policies and general law-enforcement standards.
Jenison allegedly yelled “Stop! Stop! Stop!” and waited only “one second” before he fired his pistol twice at Albers.
The Daily Beast says that Albers was hit six times: in the face, in his neck, in his head, in his chest, and in his torso. Johnson County prosecutor Steve Howe told reporters that “None of us can be in the mind of the officer at that time.” This is a meaningless thing to say.
Whether that officer had incorrectly “feared for his life” or not is immaterial when your job is to not kill people—especially kids who have committed no crimes and are in distress. According to the Kansas City Star, Jenison has already resigned from the force for “personal reasons,” and is an Iraq war veteran with two young children.
Jenison’s father, Cecil Jenison, reached by phone at his home in Wellsville, New York, said Jenison served in military combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been out of the service for a couple of years. Jenison recently became the father of twin daughters, his father said.
Attempts to reach Clayton Jenison for comment Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at his Olathe home and a message for the attorney representing both Jenison and the city was not immediately returned.
Warning: the video below is graphic.