Ronald Aubrey, 64, was fatally shot by Kansas City, Missouri, police officers at a bus stop near Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard and the Paseo Boulevard on July 24, 2025. His family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department, arguing officers gunned him down as he ran away rather than facing any real threat to their safety. An autopsy showed Aubrey was shot in the back, and the lawsuit describes the weapon he carried that day as a toy gun.
According to KSHB 41 Kansas City, attorney John Picerno, who represents Aubrey's family, says the shooting was a tragedy that could have been avoided. Picerno contends Aubrey ran away from officers without ever stopping or pointing a gun at them, and that footage contradicts the official account that he aimed a weapon at police. The Kansas City Missouri Police Department, named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Dueling Accounts From the Scene
Police were called to the intersection on July 24, 2025, after reports that a man was pointing a gun at passing traffic, per the outlet's account. Officers found Aubrey sitting at the bus stop, where he appeared to tell them he had a gun by pointing at his waistband. One responding officer later said he feared for his own safety and that of fellow officers.
Robert Russell, who called 911 to report the confrontation, said Aubrey ran while pointing a gun back at the two responding officers and separately held the gun toward an ambulance passing through the intersection. Officers claimed Aubrey ran around the bus stop enclosure toward one of them. Russell said afterward that police did what they had to do.
The lawsuit disputes that version of events. Picerno has said the footage instead contradicts the claim that Aubrey ever pointed a weapon at police, though he has theorized that Aubrey pulled the toy gun out only while he was already running away. The incident was captured on three officer body cameras and two patrol car dash cameras, according to the same reporting.
The Investigation and the Legal Standard
As part of changes made since summer 2020, KCPD has assigned all criminal investigations of officer-involved shootings to the Missouri State Highway Patrol specifically to avoid conflicts of interest, according to a Kansas City Missouri Police Department news release. That release also notes the department fully equipped patrol officers with body-worn cameras after the Board of Police Commissioners adopted a formal policy in March 2021, cameras that are now central to the dispute over what happened at the bus stop. A Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesperson said officers commanded Aubrey to submit to custody and that he did not comply.
Picerno's argument rests on a decades-old constitutional standard. Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1985 ruling in Tennessee v. Garner, officers cannot use deadly force against a fleeing suspect unless they have probable cause to believe that person poses an immediate threat of death or serious injury to officers or the public, per FindLaw's summary of the case. Picerno has said Aubrey never placed anyone in that kind of imminent danger.
A Department Without Local Control
A Kansas City police governance arrangement reflects an unusual structure. KCPD is overseen by a state-controlled five-member board, with four members appointed by Missouri's governor and confirmed by the state Senate, while Kansas City's mayor holds the remaining seat, according to Wikipedia. That structure has made Kansas City the only major U.S. city without direct local control over its own police force. A federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in March 2024 challenged that state-controlled model, arguing an 1861 statutory framework denies residents accountability over their police department, as reported by The Beacon.
Mounting Settlements Across the Region
Aubrey's case adds to a costly stretch for KCPD. In late 2025, the department agreed to a $3.5 million wrongful death settlement over a separate fatal shooting, followed in February by a $50,000 resignation settlement with a patrol officer involved in multiple fatal shootings, according to KCUR. A $14 million settlement resolved a federal lawsuit brought by a man who spent 23 years in prison for a wrongful conviction, per Neural IT.
The financial exposure isn't unique to KCPD. In neighboring Jackson County, the city of Independence agreed to pay $5.89 million settling a civil suit over a fatal police shooting in November 2024.
Internal Reviews That Rarely Lead to Change
KCPD's own oversight mechanisms have also drawn scrutiny. Reporting by the Kansas City Star found that the department's internal Notable Event Review Panel evaluated 69 officer use-of-force incidents dating back to June 2014 without recommending a single policy change. A separate discussion concerns Jackson County grand jurors weighing deadly police force. The Kansas City Missouri Police Department's Office of Community Complaints also figures in the department's oversight mechanisms.
