By Kendrick Calfee, Robert A. Cronkleton
The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas City, Kansas, officer died Tuesday after being struck by a stolen truck fleeing other officers, Chief Karl Oakman announced during a morning press conference.
Oakman identified the officer as 26-year-old Hunter Simoncic, who graduated the from the department’s academy in November 2023.
Moments before making the grim announcement, Oakman had approached a podium filled with microphones with his head down. Behind a row of media cameras, members of the department gathered with their arms crossed. As officers filed into the room at police headquarters, handshakes and hugs accompanied tears.
The briefing was held near a room dedicated to fallen officers and their stories.
Simoncic was outside a police vehicle deploying tire-deflating devices, when the driver of the fleeing truck allegedly swerved intentionally and struck him, Oakman explained.
Simoncic was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead a few hours later.
“This individual could have just kept going in the lanes like most of them do,” Oakman told media earlier. “It makes no sense to intentionally turn your vehicle into an officer, who had no protection, and strike them at a high rate of speed.”
As he detailed the events that led to the line-of-duty death, Oakman placed a poster with Simoncic’s “end of watch” date and badge number in front of him for everyone to see.
Oakman read from a piece of paper the words Simoncic wrote after graduating from the academy.
“Hunter chose to become an officer so he could take what he learned in life to make positive changes in a community he believes truly deserved it and served as a mentor for you,” Oakman said. “He would like to thank his parents for installing ethics such as character, hard work and grit, as well as life tools he needed to pursue his career.”
Mayor Tyrone Garner called for the community to support the police department and Simoncic’s family during their time of grief.
“I can tell you, looking in family member’s eyes and trying to console them, there’s no words to heal the pain and the devastation that they’re dealing with — a job as mayor that I don’t ever want to have to do again, because I hurt for those families. I hurt for all our public safety professionals,” said Garner, who worked for the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department for 32 years, ultimately reaching the rank of deputy chief.
Oakman said Simoncic is survived by his mother, father and brother.
Members of the police department will be meeting with Simoncic’s family to plan funeral arrangements, Oakman said.
A memorial fund has been established to support his family. Donations can be made to KCK FOP Memorial Fund , c/o Simoncic Family, at any Public Safety Credit Union location.
Officers respond to sound of gunfire
The incident began around 12:30 a. m. when officers responded to an alert from the department’s gunshot detection system that shots had been fired in the area of the 7700 block of Everett Avenue, which is near the Kansas City, Kansas Community College, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the officer’s death.
There, officers found an unconscious man in the driver’s seat of a truck, and they approached. The man woke up and fled, and officers pursued.
After a brief chase, the man abandoned the truck and allegedly got into another stolen truck that was stashed in the woods, Oakman said. The man continued to flee officers.
During the pursuit, Simoncic was one of two officers who were in the 7200 block of State, setting up tire-deflating devices. After deploying the devices, Simoncic went to the median, which is normal procedure to get out of danger, Oakman said.
“This was a this was a situation that we do across the metro thousands of times a year, deploying stop sticks, and this individual felt the need to run Hunter down and kill him,” Oakman said. “That is not a vehicle accident. This was an intentional act of homicide on a police.”
The suspect drove over the tire-deflating devices and then allegedly veered toward Simoncic, striking him. The suspect then sped away and was arrested after crashing about 12:55 a.m. in the 6400 block of Kaw Drive , according to the KBI.
Booked into jail, awaiting charges
The driver was taken into custody and was transported to a hospital for examination. He was treated, released and booked into the Wyandotte County jail.
The suspect was identified as 31-year-old Dennis Edward Mitchell III of Kansas City, Kansas, who was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, vehicular homicide, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, theft, criminal possession of a firearm, and aggravated failure to appear. Formal charges are pending.
Once the investigation is complete, the KBI will present its findings to the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office, which will determine what, if any, charges will be filed against Mitchell.
Police later confirmed that both trucks had been reported stolen. The Kansas Highway Patrol’s critical highway accident response team is helping investigate the crash.
Simoncic’s death comes exactly one month after a Wyandotte County Sheriff Deputy was killed in the line of duty.
On July 26 , Deputy Elijah Ming was responding to a domestic violence call to help a woman who was moving out of a home in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas , and was afraid for her safety.
A man, later identified as Shawn Harris , 38, allegedly confronted Ming and opened fire, striking him. Harris has been charged with capital murder and criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in connection with Ming’s death.
“I mean, we still have officers that have not come back to work from the death of Deputy Ming, and now we have officers who actually witnessed (today’s incident) and officers that did first aid on officer Simoncic,” Oakman said.
The department’s last line-of-duty deaths occurred in 2016, when two members of the force were killed just months apart.
Police detective Brad Lancaster was shot and killed in May 2016 after police began a pursuit of a Tonganoxie man near the Kansas Speedway and ended in Kansas City near Bannister Road and Bruce R. Watkins Drive.
That July, police captain Robert Melton was shot and killed as police were responding to a drive-by shooting and subsequent police chase.
—
©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
