KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brelande Edmond was looking for a way to serve his community and decided that joining the Kansas City Police Department would be the way to fulfill his desire, his mother said.
“He felt that was his way of giving, helping and giving back to the community,” Kayla Edmond of St. Louis said Tuesday. “He just thought it would be a way to maybe make a difference.”
Her son, however, died at a hospital July 3 after taking the physical agility test at the Regional Police Academy. The hospital ruled his death the result of heatstroke and liver shock, said Edmond.
Capt. Leslie Foreman, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, confirmed on Tuesday that an applicant had a medical emergency following the physical agility test the afternoon of June 30 and was taken to a hospital.
The test was part of the pre-employment process and was held in the climate controlled gym at the Regional Police Academy. The police department partners with the Kansas City Fire Department to provide emergency medical services in the event of a medical emergency, she said.
Edmond’s mother, however, said her son’s death was preventable and she is pushing for Kansas City police to change the way it evaluates recruits. She traveled to Kansas City on Tuesday to attend the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting and request they make changes.
She is asking the board to require potential cadets to undergo a complete physical exam prior to taking the agility test, to check their heart rate and body temperatures prior to the test and to use devices to monitor their vital signs during the tests.
“My son was my last living child,” Kayla Edmond told commissioners after outlining the changes she wanted to see made. “I will forever suffer because of this incident.”
Bishop Mark Tolbert, board president, said she had the board’s deepest sympathy and they would take her suggestions into consideration and any changes made would be in the name of her son as she requested.
The board of commissioners must approve all policies and procedures. The department regularly reviews its practices to “best ensure the safety for all,” Foreman said.
Brelande Edmond, who was 23, graduated from Avila University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in mental health. While earning his degree, he worked for Ozanam in Kansas City.
After graduating, he worked in customer service for a plumbing and heating company and was promoted to handle accounts payable and accounting. Recently, he decided he wanted pursue a career in law enforcement.
“He went into psychology because he wanted to help people and he decided the way that he wanted to help was through the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department,” Edmond said.
On the day of June 30, Brelande Edmond took and passed the written exam, which allowed him to move on to the physical agility test.
“After he finished the exam, he passed out,” his mother said. “He lost consciousness and lost his heartbeat. They had to perform CPR.”
He was rushed to the hospital. By then, he had suffered significant organ, liver, kidney and brain damage and was placed on life support and dialysis. He died the morning of July 3.
Edmond, who drove from St. Louis to see her son in the hospital, said she had difficulty getting information about what happened from the police department. She said members of the department came to the hospital the second day and offered a chaplain. They also offered her a tow truck to tow his car off the academy parking lot.
She asked if they conducted a physical exam or stress test prior to the agility test and she said she was told they use the agility test to weed out potential candidates. The physical exam comes later.
“They told me that he was inside a temperature controlled gymnasium, so I’m definitely trying to understand how my son experienced heatstroke,” she said.
When she asked more about the agility tests, they said there’s videos on YouTube that show the training course. She also asked if any of the commanders saw her son in distress or showing signs of heatstroke. She said the commander told her that they were not there to observe the cadets, that that was the job of the fire department.
Meanwhile, the family was unable to move his car because they didn’t know where his keys were. On Friday morning, someone from the department called saying that his backpack had been found with his keys and wallet were inside. They said the car had to be moved from the parking lot or it would be turned over to the police evidence unit.
Edmond told the caller that she was about to leave St. Louis because she was headed to Kansas City for her son’s funeral the next day. The caller replied that she was leaving early on Friday.
Edmond said her son was driven, goal-oriented, respectful, caring and unselfish.
“You know, especially right now in this time, we needed more people like my son on this earth,” she said.
