By Matti Gellman and Anna Spoerre
The Kansas City Star
FAIRWAY, Kan. — When Kaitlyn Lauritsen hears the 2004 pop hit “Unwritten” on the radio, she thinks of her former police partner Officer Jonah Oswald.
The song is tied to fond memories. Lauritsen met Oswald in 2018 when he joined the Buckner Police Department in Missouri after a brief stint with the Sugar Creek police, about 15 miles west. She said they were “still green” and “eager to learn to do the job well.” They rode around Buckner together in a patrol car, belting out lyrics with Natasha Bedingfield:
“Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten.”
Now, Lauritsen and members of the Fairway, Kansas, community that Oswald had come to call home over the last four years have had to grapple with the officer’s sudden death at the age of 29, shortly after a Sunday morning shootout.
The shooting began with a police pursuit. Lenexa officers pursued an identified stolen vehicle that rammed a police car, ending at the QuikTrip at 4700 Lamar Ave. in Mission, just west of Fairway, where Oswald was one of eight officers working in a city of about 4,000 residents.
The suspects ran into the QuikTrip, according to authorities. Oswald and officers from other area departments had converged on the scene, responding to assist in apprehending the suspects, when the fatal shots rang out.
Oswald suffered critical injuries in the shooting, and was declared dead at the University of Kansas Hospital on Monday evening. He left behind a wife and two young children.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Oswald is the first Fairway police officer to be killed in the line of duty. He is the 727th officer to be killed in the state’s recorded history, according to the nonprofit.
Members of the Buckner Police Department posted a remembrance for Oswald on its Facebook page.
“We have had many officers come and go from our department, but only one Jonah Oswald,” they wrote. “Some officers say that he was a very optimistic person and didn’t know how to have a bad day. He loved encouraging people to reach their goals in life, and he would always offer help wherever you needed him.”
He died surrounded by family and friends, they said.
“If you personally knew Jonah, you would know that that is the way he would want to go,” they wrote. “Surrounded by love.”
After word of Oswald’s death started circulating Monday night, Lauritsen said a woman reached out to her on Facebook to say that Oswald also made a huge difference in the lives of her and her husband. The woman said Oswald helped her and her husband get sober, so they could fully commit themselves to their son.
The woman had hoped to introduce Oswald to her child someday.
“If that doesn’t show what kind of man, husband, partner and officer he was, I don’t know what does,” Lauritsen said.
“He made an impact on everyone’s life around him.”
Jonah Oswald
Lauritsen said Oswald had “an amazing personality” in the time she and other Buckner police officers helped train him.
“He always had such a happy-go-lucky personality and truly wanted to do what he could to make a difference out there in the world and his community,” she said.
While Oswald was serious about being a police officer, she said, he also loved to joke around with his colleagues when he had the chance.
In the last few months he served with the Buckner department, he and one of his partners started playing pranks on Lauritsen, and visa versa. The shenanigans included dressing up an old mannequin they found at the department and staging it around the office and in patrol cars.
When they weren’t pulling one over on each other, they were still having fun.
Oswald went on to serve as a reserve officer for the Buckner police until September 2021.
He joined the Fairway police at the age of 25 and shortly after, he and his wife welcomed their first child.
“He was just so dang happy to be a father,” Lauritsen said. “I know that was his world.”
Roger Doeren, owner of the Rainy Day Books, met Oswald around that time as he was tinkering with a Fairway patrol car in the lot separating the department from the book store.
“I know who you are,” Doeren recalled Oswald saying as he looked up from his vehicle.
Oswald’s eyes lit up as they spoke about woodworking, strumming the guitar and their love of the outdoors. He had a witty sense of police humor that was easily understood by Doeren, who had joined the Federal Bureau of Investigations Citizen’s Academy in 2013.
On nights when Doeren worked late to load and unload book crates, Oswald would drive by ready to lend a hand.
“I really enjoyed being with him,” Doeren said. “He would always be so willing to just stop whatever he was doing and help.”
Rachel Feuerborn, a spokeswoman with Life.Church, said Oswald for the past three years worked as contracted security for their Overland Park campus during Sunday morning services. She said as a church, they’re heartbroken as they grieve along with the community.
While he was there to stand watch, Oswald was also there to give out high-fives, Feuerborn said. The kids loved it.
“We’ll always remember him for how he greeted each family and made them feel welcome,” Feuerborn said.
‘Quiet, peaceful, safe’
Stephanie Thoms of Fairway set down her arrangement of magenta and violet flowers on the cafe counter next to her “My Dearest Sympathies” Hallmark card and matching envelope.
“I’ll take all of them,” she told the barista, pointing to the Front Range cafe’s two cases of baked goods.
Thoms balanced the three bags between her fingertips, preparing to deliver twice as many pastries as there were Fairway police officers to the grieving department’s front door only a few feet away.
“I just think we’re a community and we’re all in this together,” she said while moving the bags to a side table.
Thoms, a healthcare professional, woke up that morning reeling from news of Oswald’s death. She had no law enforcement background. She did not know Oswald. And she has lived in Fairway for less than three years, yet, she said her tight-knit community is sparing no expense to express their condolences.
“It’s the action of showing up, right? Its saying this is meaningful and significant enough to take the time out to be like ‘Hey I’m thinking of you and I’m sorry,’” she said.
According to a list of names compiled by Fairway city hall staff, Thoms became the 11th person that afternoon to drop off gifts in honor of Oswald.
The staff members, sitting in the front office of a building adjoined to the police department, only a block from the Front Range Cafe, said they would be sending ‘thank you’ letters to each individual in the mail.
“We love this community, its a small community.”
Thoms said living in close proximity to the police department and having the area’s city hall and main shopping area nearby has made her comfortable seeing officers frequently.
“They’re definitely out and about,” she said.
Doeren of Rainy Day Books agreed, saying its clear to the community members of Fairway these officers are “just people” in uniform.
Jamie, who works at Pride Cleaners next to Front Range, said she presses and cleans the uniforms of the Fairway and Westwood, Kansas, police departments.
No one leaves the store without engaging her in a daily chat.
“I’m one of those people you don’t have a choice but to talk to me,” she said, laughing.
She has become friendly with the officers over her last 12 years working for the dry cleaning service.
“Being able to work with these guys has made me realize there’s really good officers out here,” she said.
Jamie declined to reveal her last name over concerns related to privacy. She’s been anxious since hearing an officer had died Monday night, when she had sat in her home with a list of officer’s names, crossing off each after brief phone calls, hoping to pinpoint who had been killed.
She did not know Oswald, she said, because he had been working the overnight shift. And as officers dropped in and out of the dry cleaner’s Tuesday, she could not help but wonder why this happened.
“You’ve heard about [officers dying] in surrounding areas like Kansas City, Missouri, but not here in Fairway,” she said.
“No, Fairway you just think of as nice little town, quiet, peaceful safe. You don’t think of anything like this happening. You don’t hear about it.”
A fund was set up through the Public Safety Credit Union to support Oswald’s family. Donations can be made at https://linktr.ee/fairwaypolice.
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