A Platte County jury convicted former Kansas City police officer Taquiza Johnson of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2024 death of 71-year-old Ronald Barnett, according to The Platte County Citizen. The jury recommended life imprisonment for the murder conviction and 15 years for the armed-criminal-action conviction; the Citizen reported that the terms must be served consecutively.
What jurors heard
The five-day trial centered on whether Johnson reasonably believed he faced a threat during a confrontation outside a Walmart on North Boardwalk Avenue in Kansas City. Johnson testified that Barnett’s SUV came too close as he crossed the parking area and that Barnett threatened him and used racial epithets. Prosecutors disputed Johnson’s self-defense account. KSHB 41 Kansas City reported that Johnson acknowledged knowing Barnett was unarmed.
The 2024 shooting
The confrontation took place Aug. 21, 2024, at the Walmart Supercenter. Barnett left after the initial dispute, and surveillance video was shown to jurors. Johnson then went to Barnett’s vehicle and fired, striking him. Barnett was taken to North Kansas City Hospital, where he died, according to The Platte County Citizen. Johnson fled the scene, KSHB 41 Kansas City reported.
Johnson served with the Kansas City Police Department from 2004 to 2014, according to KSHB 41 Kansas City. The prosecutor’s office argued that the evidence did not support using deadly force in response to the alleged verbal confrontation, and jurors rejected Johnson’s self-defense claim.
How Missouri law applies
Missouri’s self-defense law generally does not require a person to retreat from a place where the person has a right to be, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. The statute’s no-duty-to-retreat provision is subject to other requirements for using force, including the rules governing deadly force, so it does not by itself resolve whether a self-defense claim is legally valid. Missouri law defines second-degree murder as knowingly causing another person’s death and classifies it as a class A felony, according to the Revisor.
A separate Kansas City case involved former Kansas City police officer Eric DeValkenaere, who was convicted in 2021 of involuntary manslaughter in the 2019 death of Cameron Lamb. The Associated Press reported that the governor later commuted DeValkenaere’s prison sentence to parole, making that case’s charge and outcome different from Johnson’s.
