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A Kansas City family whose loved one was killed by police is searching for answers.
Cameron Lamb, 26, was gunned down by a Kansas City Police Department detective last Tuesday as he sat inside of his car in his backyard. Police are still investigating the incident but told The Kansas City Star that they were called to the scene because of a disturbance and when they got there, Lamb allegedly put the officer “in a position where he had to discharge his firearm,” Capt. Tim Hernandez, a spokesman for the KCPD, told the newspaper.
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The family isn’t buying it and think it could have been a case of mistaken identity.
“If you went through that area that day, you’d see a ton of police. I mean, man, plenty of police over there. Those police weren’t over there for that young man. About 60 cops over there. they weren’t over there for him. They had to be over there for someone else,” Lamb’s stepfather Aqil Bey told Fox 4 Kansas City.
The disturbance police were responding to reportedly involved two vehicles and took place near 35th Street and College Avenue last Tuesday. A police helicopter spotted one of the vehicles as it pulled in the backyard of a home in the 4100 block of College Avenue.
As detectives approached the vehicle, Hernandez said the officer fired shots. Police told The Kansas City Star that Lamb was found inside of his vehicle although his left arm and head hung out of the driver’s side window. On the ground underneath his left hand allegedly was a handgun, according to police.
The family said they have been trying to get answers but all they’ve been getting is confusion.
“We just want to know what happened, we just want to know the truth. It’s not much more we can say other than we want the truth to come out and we want people to just be honest and tell us how it is, no matter what happened,” Lamb’s sister, Shelice Sheppard, told Fox 4 Kansas City.
Another sister talked about the toll this is having on the family.
“We lost a brother. Our mom lost her only son, and we have three nephews who don’t have a dad now. It’s definitely not going to be the same. It feels like a huge piece of your heart is just ripped out,” Lamb’s sister, Vanessa Gray, told Fox 4 Kansas City.
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Laurie Bey, Lamb’s mother, said never in a million years do you think something like this will happen to you. “We hear many times about stuff happening, but you never know this thing is going to hit your home and it hurts,” Bey said, adding that police have not told her anything.
In a police statement, KCPD said “The investigation is still ongoing regarding what the detectives were doing in the area.
The detective, who was not named, is out on administrative leave.