A Missouri police detective is waiting for a judge to deliver a verdict after his involuntary manslaughter trial in the fatal shooting of a Black man in 2019. The trial for Detective Eric J. DeValkenaere marked the first time in the Kansas City history that an officer has been charged in a fatal on-duty shooting, The Kansas City Star reported.
DeValkenaere, 43, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after he shot 26-year-old Cameron Lamb while he sat in a pickup truck in his own backyard on Dec. 3, 2019. The trial started on Nov. 8, and ended last Friday. Judge J. Dale Youngs heard the case without a jury. The judge said he could deliver a ruling as early as next week. “I will do my best not to delay,” the Jackson County judge said on Friday.
DeValkenaere claims he only fired his weapon after Lamb aimed a gun at another detective on the scene who was standing at the driver’s door of the car. After the shooting, police discovered a weapon outside of the pickup on the garage floor underneath Lamb’s left arm hanging out of the driver’s side window. However, prosecutors have accused police of planting evidence and staging the scene.
At the time of the shooting, DeValkenaere and Troy Schwalm arrived at the home, where Lamb was backing his red pickup truck into a basement garage. A helicopter spotted and followed the truck after it was involved in a neighborhood chase and crash with another vehicle.
Lamb’s attorneys says he initially complied when Schwalm and DeValkenaere, both in plainclothes, yelled at him to raise his hands. DeValkenaere says he fired his weapon through the windshield four times after Lamb pointed a handgun at Schwalm.
Two bullets struck Lamb in the chest and leg. Prosecutors said Lamb was grasping the steering wheel with his left hand and a cellphone with his right before he was shot.
Prosecutors showed police dash camera video in court last week, showing that police prevented an EMS crew from entering the garage to check on Lamb for 14 minutes after the shooting. Once medics were finally allowed inside the garage, Lamb, a father of four, was pronounced dead. The prosecution alleged DeValkenaere’s conduct violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unlawful searches and seizures.
Prosecutors said the detectives did not have a warrant or permission to be on the property, and that their actions were not warranted since the high-speed chase had ended. DeValkenaere fired the shots about nine seconds after arriving on the scene.
Several officers testified during the trial that they noticed a handgun on the garage floor where Lamb’s left hand hung outside of the vehicle’s window after the shooting. Prosceutors say Lamb didn’t have full use of his left hand as a result of an injury sustained before the encounter.
DeValkenaere took the stand and claimed he fired his weapon to defend his partner. “My focus moves from that weapon to the center of his chest. I bring my weapon from this position and drive it towards him. And as I acquire the front side I discharge a round to his center mass,” DeValkenaere said as he fought tears. He denied that he conspired to plant a weapon alongside officers.
Schwalm testified that he did not see a gun in Lamb’s hand. Lamb’s family has filed a $10 million wrongful death suit against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners and DeValkenaere.
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