As fallout from police shooting continues, Topeka deserves more than resignations

LaRonna Lassiter Saunders talks to journalists during a Dec. 31, 2024, interview in Overland Park. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

LaRonna Lassiter Saunders launched a petition earlier this year in Topeka urging city attorney Amanda Stanley and Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay to resign. Half of that wish came true when Stanley announced her resignation, effective Sept. 6.

“One down,” Lassiter Saunders said in an email. “Kagay needs to be next.”

Lassiter Saunders has co-represented the family of Taylor Lowery, a Topeka man killed by Topeka police in 2022. Since seeing bodycam footage last year, she’s stood resolute in demanding Kagay resign.

This entire episode — the inaccurate press releases, the speedy exoneration of the officers and the attempts to hide the video — illustrates how police can ignore transparency, commandeer narratives, and avoid accountability.

We wouldn’t know the truth had the video not been released. That should concern us. It calls into question every frame of withheld footage, every line of coached testimony, and the contents of every nondisclosure agreement. If this sounds unfair, it’s because we’re conditioned to believe public servants can decide when transparency is appropriate.

Citizens asserting their right to know isn’t the issue. It’s the lack of transparency that fosters doubt.

Lassiter Saunders said Kagay misled the public by presenting screenshots of the video out of sequence.

This action “supported the false narrative that Taylor ran at officers with a knife when he was gunned down,” Lassiter Saunders said. “He also said Taylor had cocaine in his system when the (toxicology) report showed negative for cocaine.”

Emails seeking comment from Kagay went unanswered.

Stanley reportedly has accepted a job away from Topeka. She issued a statement expressing pride in her work and gratitude to her coworkers.

“Public service is a calling,” Stanley said in the statement. “I leave with pride in what we’ve achieved together and with sincere wishes for the City’s continued success.”

Lassiter Saunders said it’s Kagay’s turn.

Press releases and a report by Kagay’s office insisted that Lowery charged police while holding a knife above his head. The video showed Lowery picking up a wrench and backing away from police when he was shot 34 times.

Lassiter Saunders’ petition urging Stanley and Kagay to resign has drawn nearly 400 signatures.

Community activist Danielle Twemlow said via email that Kagay’s behavior wasn’t a misuse of words or an incomplete rendering. Twemlow said he went to great lengths to hide misconduct.  Kagay, Twemlow said, thought the case would evaporate, but a judge allowed the footage to be released, and the narrative began to crumble.

“They watched him bleed to death before ever approaching him for assistance,” Twemlow said. “They admitted he had a wrench, not a knife, but lied to Lowery’s family when they arrived on scene. Kagay knew all of this. Instead of doing what he is sworn to do, he lied.”

Glenda Overstreet Vaughn, a former head of the state NAACP, welcomed news of Stanley’s resignation. But she also insisted Kagay also step down.

“Seeing the city attorney step down was like a Godsend sign of righteous justice for families that have been too long injured by the misdeeds of those who sit in such positions as the city attorney and district attorney,” she said in an email.

People hoped Kagay would uphold the integrity of the office, she said.

“Yet he eroded public trust when he blatantly lied, withheld videos showing true evidence, and then aligned with organizations of privilege, in essence doubling down on his wrongness,” she said. “He will realize there is power in the faith of the people.”

Overstreet Vaughn argued earlier this year that Kagay willfully misinterpreted the video out of absolute confidence the video never would go public.

“It’s very evident that they will do anything to try to hide the things they’ve done wrong,” she said in a previous interview.

Overstreet Vaughn said the community no longer could take Kagay at his word.

“How do we know how many times this has happened before?” she asked.

Lassiter Saunders said Kagay’s behavior demands investigation: “We need a full review of his conduct and sentence recommendations and his eventual resignation from office.”

Even if that happened, we’d need more than a new nameplate on the district attorney’s office door. We’d need a transparency open house where we open windows and air the place air out.

Mark McCormick is the former executive director of the Kansas African American Museum, a member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and former deputy executive director at the ACLU of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.