A Kansas City police officer was killed by a suspect who was fleeing while he was deploying a stop stick. The police department is now mourning the unfortunate loss of the young officer who graduated from the academy in 2023, according to the New York Post.
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Fleeing Suspect Allegedly Kills Young Police Officer Placing Stop Sticks
26-year-old Hunter Simoncic was struck by a suspect fleeing the scene early morning on Tuesday, August 26. Simoncic was deploying stop sticks, devices that can stop vehicles they are in pursuit of.
As he placed them on State Avenue, 31-year-old Dennis Mitchell III allegedly struck him while fleeing from the authorities. Police have now charged the suspect with capital murder, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon, and two counts of theft.
Officers initially responded to reports of shots fired on Everett Avenue around 12:30 AM local time. They arrived 10 minutes later to find Mitchell unconscious in the driver’s seat of a truck.
He quickly woke up when the officers approached him, leading him to flee. Now they were in pursuit of this man who had found another truck to drive. This was when Somoncic and another officer set up the stop sticks to catch Mitchell.
Mitchell did end up getting to that roadway, but instead drove into Simoncic and sped away. Police eventually found Mitchell with his wrecked second truck around 12:55 AM on Kaw Drive. Unsurprisingly, officers later found out that both trucks that Mitchell drove were reported stolen.
Simoncic was transferred to the University of Kansas Medical Center, but they later pronounced him dead. Meanwhile, police took Mitchell into custody and placed him in the same hospital for treatment. Once he was healthy enough, they placed the suspect in Wyandotte County Jail.
KCKPD Speaks Up After Officer’s Death
The Kansas City Kansas Police Department (KCKPD) made a statement on Facebook concerning the troubling death. “It is with a profound sense of loss and pain that we share with our community that Officer Hunter Simoncic died this morning,” it began.
Simoncic graduated with a B.S. in sociology from Pittsburg State, as well as a master’s in forensic science from Oklahoma State University. He began working for the Southeast Kansas Regional Juvenile Detention Center and graduated from the KCKPD Academy in 2023.
This officer also volunteered weekly to read with children at Benjamin Banneker Elementary School. “Officer Simoncic was making a difference,” it continued.
“While he grew up in a small town in southeast Kansas, he chose to serve our community because, in his words, ‘I want to take what I have learned in life to make positive changes in a community I believe truly deserves it.’ Let that sink in.”