Family of man killed by Kansas City, Kansas, police wants answers. Cops aren’t talking

Destiny Carrillo was lying in bed at her North Kansas City home on the afternoon of June 20 when her phone rang.

Her sister told her that their brother had been shot.

Panicked, Carrillo rushed to the hospital, hoping that somehow the news wasn’t true, or that he would survive. She waited there for hours before learning that her brother Dario Dominguez had died. He had been shot by a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas.

Dominguez, 25, was the third youngest of seven siblings who grew up in KCK. He worked at a tire shop in Kansas City, Missouri.

He was shot by police at 18th and Parallel Parkway. The police department said he was running from officers and turned around, firing a gun towards them. They returned fire.

His family is left with many questions about the shooting, and are particularly upset that no one from the police department will talk to them. Police did not even deliver a notification to next of kin, and the family only learned of the incident through Dominguez’s girlfriend, who was with him at the time of the crash.

In the weeks that have followed, Carrillo has continued to seek out information about what happened to her brother. A video of the moments leading up to the shooting shows Dominguez crash a vehicle in a field. As it stalls, he runs from the driver’s side of the SUV and police begin to chase him.

No video has surfaced publicly to show the shooting itself.

“I think my mom just wants to know what happened,” Carrillo said. “Why did they kill her son? Why did they kill my brother?”

Dominguez was the first of two men killed by police in KCK in a span of five days in June.

In a time when police shootings are under more scrutiny than ever, and police narratives of them have repeatedly been shown false by videos and witnesses, trust in such cases is hard to come by. In Kansas City, Kansas, especially, police have been at the center of damaging scandals including the wrongful conviction of a man who spent more than two decades in prison, allegations that a former detective raped a woman and lawsuits accusing the department of discrimination.

Earlier this month, community organizers with the social justice group MORE2 called for the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the practices of the KCK police department, an effort Dominguez’s family said they support.

The experience his family is going through shows how ineffective the police department can be at building relationships, said India Woods, the community organizer in Wyandotte County for social justice organization MORE2.

“The community feels that there is a lack of transparency amongst KCKPD so that fosters much of the lack of trust,” she said.

Dario Dominguez

Carrillo said the family, who is working with Kansas City attorney Tom Porto, cannot move on from her brother’s death without some peace of mind.

Relatives acknowledge that he had gotten into trouble when he was younger — he finished high school while in jail — but said he was tired of that lifestyle and was trying to be a better person.

Dominguez enjoyed spending time with his friends and eating at least two bowls of cereal every day — Cinnamon Toast Crunch was his favorite, Carrillo said with a laugh.

He did not have any children, but loved his nieces and nephews, his sister said. He was known for wrapping them up in a blanket and swinging them around as they giggled with thrill.

“He always had a big smile,” Carrillo said. “He had a big heart for a lot of his friends, a lot of his family. He was always there to help them out.”

Police shooting

On the day of the shooting, police have said, Kansas City, Missouri, officers tried to pull over a Ford Expedition that had reportedly been taken in an armed carjacking three days earlier.

A chase ensued, and the officers followed the vehicle into Kansas City, Kansas, where the SUV crashed behind a convenience store.

Dominguez ran from the vehicle.

According to the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, Dominguez then turned and shot at officers, who returned fire.

Nancy Chartrand, spokeswoman for the police department, said the investigation is ongoing.

Five officers were present at the time of the shooting. One was placed on administrative leave. He has since returned to duty based on the initial investigation and counseling by an independent psychologist, Chartrand said.

The police department said it is not unusual for people on the scene to contact family members before police have the opportunity to notify next of kin.

“Such was the case here,” Chartrand said in an email on Wednesday. “We are empathetic and understand the family’s desire to ask questions regarding the events which led to their son’s death. At the same time, maintaining the integrity of an investigation as their top priority, detectives take into account a number of factors when deciding at what point those conversations can and should take place.”

On Friday, Chartrand said the department is going to establish protocols for “proactive outreach to next of kin for those killed in officer involved shootings in order to provide them the opportunity to meet with detectives to discuss issues that do not affect the integrity of the investigation.”

Investigation and accountability

Michael Gennaco, a police practices expert based in Los Angeles, said someone from the police department or another official should be in contact with the family.

The department’s leadership could also extend condolences.

In addition to verifying whether a gun was recovered from the scene, Gennaco said, the public should have access to the body camera videos.

Officers were wearing body cameras, but recordings have not been shown to the family or released to the public.

“Whenever officers use deadly force, it’s the ultimate force that we authorize them to use and no other individual in the country do we place that level of trust in,” Gennaco said. “Therefore when a deadly force incident occurs ... the public has the right to know the circumstances surrounding it. And often times body camera video will provide a picture of the incident that a report of other information could never capture in the same way.”

Under Kansas law, the person who is the subject of a recording, their parent or guardian, the person’s attorney and their heirs can request to view the footage. Agencies must comply with the request within 20 days.

The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s policy says recordings will be released to the public “if there is a compelling reason, such as an overall benefit to the safety or education of the public.”

Carrillo said her family still has many questions about what happened to Dominguez. She questioned if someone else had actually stolen the car and wondered why police had to use deadly force instead of less lethal actions like a Taser.

The day after the shooting, she and other family members went to the police department to ask questions. But a detective declined to give them any information.

“We want answers to what they have to say about what happened because we haven’t gotten any information,” Carrillo said.