A Missouri sheriff’s deputy shot and killed an unarmed Black teen named Saveion McConnell, according to recently released bodycam footage. The deputy fired nine shots, including five after the first gunshots sent the teen to the ground.
But prosecutors chose not to charge Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth Lewie because the teen had lifted his shirt. They said that action made the deputy believe McConnell was reaching for a gun.
Another passenger from the car also tracked him down shortly before officers arrived. That explains why bodycam footage shows officers detaining two Black teens.
“Trying to find a Black kid at night, that’s always fun,” Odessa police officer Nathan Holmberg said on bodycam footage minutes before the shooting.
“That comment is reprehensible,” said attorney Ben Crump in a press release. Crump is one of four attorneys representing McConnell’s family.
“No parent should ever have to hear a police officer talk about the search for their child as if it were sport.”
The shooting took place on May 1 after law enforcement officers responded to a call about a 17-year-old girl shot in the back while driving a car.
The girl told police that McConnell, who was sitting in the back seat, had shot her at around 2 a.m. after they had left a party.
Another passenger told police the gun discharged while one passenger in the back seat was handing the weapon to the other passenger in the back seat.
The car came to a stop on the side of the road, and McConnell took off running. Police responded and found two guns in the car — a Glock pistol and an AR-15.
Multiple law enforcement agencies began searching for McConnell. During the search, Holmberg made the comment about “trying to find a Black kid.”
Law enforcement officers found McConnell walking along the highway almost two hours later, about three miles from the initial shooting scene.
Another passenger from the car also tracked him down shortly before officers arrived, which explains why bodycam footage shows officers detaining two Black teens.
The video shows Holmberg ordering McConnell to walk backward toward him at gunpoint, telling him to put his hands on his head.
However, it appears the teen misunderstood him and briefly placed his hands on his hips.
“Hands on your head!” Holmberg repeats.
But McConnell runs down the highway, and Lewie pursues him and strikes him with his car. The two publicly released videos from Holmberg’s camera do not show the impact.
In his decision not to charge Lewie, Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Russell said that Lewie unintentionally struck McConnell with his car.
But McConnell managed to stand back up. He had his hands in the air with Lewie pointing a gun at him, ordering him to get on the ground, when Holmberg walked up with his Taser in his hands.
At one point, McConnell reached for his waistband, which is when Lewie fired nine rounds, with eight of them striking the teen and killing him.
“Saveion was unarmed, he had stopped running, and he was seized at gunpoint,” said Senior Attorney Joshua M. Levin of Romanucci & Blandin in the press release.
“Moving his hands toward his waist violated no command, and it appears consistent with a young man who had just been knocked down by a police car trying to pull up his pants so he could get on the ground as ordered.”
The Kansas City Defender, a Black-led nonprofit news site, first published the bodycam videos in September after Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Russell announced he would not charge Lewie.
The Defender sharply criticized Russell’s decision and demanded that prosecutors reopen the case to investigate why Lewie kept shooting after McConnell fell to the ground. The outlet also demanded that authorities release all bodycam footage.
“The Missouri Attorney General, or a special prosecutor with no ties to the three agencies named on this memo, should review the footage and the file,” The Defender stated.
“Release every second of every camera, Lewie’s included, from the ‘Black kid at night’ remark to the last shot.”
The videos were further spread online after attorneys issued their press release about the shooting, stating the “legal team’s investigation is ongoing as it pursues accountability for Saveion’s death.”
“If Deputy Lewie truly believed Saveion was reaching for a gun, at a minimum he should have ordered him to show his hands and given him a chance to comply,” attorney Levin stated in the press release.
People shared the videos more widely online after attorneys issued a press release about the shooting, stating the “legal team’s investigation is ongoing as it pursues accountability for Saveion’s death.”
“The other officer, watching the same movement from farther back, had switched from his gun to his Taser, which suggests he saw no need for deadly force,” Levin continued.
“And whatever Deputy Lewie believed at first, nothing could justify firing five shots at Saveion after he was lying incapacitated on the ground. In our view, this was an unreasonable and excessive use of deadly force.”
