Three Kansas City police officers were shot and injured Tuesday night while serving a search warrant on the eastern side of the city, according to Police Chief Stacey Graves.
Speaking outside the University Health hospital where the officers were being treated, Graves said the officers’ injuries were not life-threatening and that they were “alert,” awake and able to talk.
“That’s the best situation that, under these circumstances, that I can hope for,” Graves said.
The incident began shortly after 9:30 p.m. when the officers from the Kansas City Police Department were executing a search warrant in the 2300 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard, Graves said.
After knocking on the door at the location, announcing themselves as police and attempting to enter, the officers were fired on and three were shot, she said. Police also returned fire. Graves said she did not know how many shots were fired or if anyone else was shot.
The injured officers were taken to the hospital by other police officers at the scene, Graves said.
After the shooting, police remained in a standoff for hours at the location near Blue Summit, an unincorporated area just east of Interstate 435 and north of 23rd Street.
Graves said Independence police were taking over the standoff because Kansas City police were directly involved in the shooting.
About 11 p.m., tactical officers assembled outside of a residence in the 2300 block of Blue Ridge. Several surrounding streets were blocked off by police vehicles and road flares.
Around 11:20 pm, a utility worker came to the block and the power was cut off to street lights and residences there.
The shooting will be investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, as police shootings are generally in Kansas City by mutual agreement.
Mayor Quinton Lucas posted a message on Twitter at 10:19 p.m. saying it was another example of the dangers of police work.
“We’ve been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be,” Lucas wrote. “I am praying for a full recovery for our three officers injured this evening and that everyone on duty gets home to their families safely.”
The shooting Tuesday night comes two weeks after Kansas City police officer James Muhlbauer was killed, along with his K-9 partner and a pedestrian, 52-year-old Jesse Eckes, in a car crash while on duty.
That came just days after a KCPD officer was hit by a bullet and injured outside department headquarters on Locust Street on the evening of Feb. 12.
Police were investigating whether that was connected to a shooting reported several blocks away.
“It’s been more than an awful week,” Graves said Tuesday. “But what I’m seeing here tonight, our officers are OK considering the circumstances. Some of their injuries may last far beyond today, but they are here with us.”
Several other members of the Kansas City Police Department have survived injuries from shootings in recent years.
On July 2, 2020, two Kansas City police officers were injured in separate, unrelated shootings during the same day, including one that took place on a city bus, also injuring the driver.
Two years earlier, a man suspected in the off-campus shooting death of a University of Missouri-Kansas City graduate student injured three officers before he was killed in a shootout with police at a home in the 2900 block of Topping Avenue.
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