The man killed in a car chase in Kansas City, Kansas, that ended in a police-involved shooting on Monday has been identified by police as Jason A. Burk, 41.
Burk, who lived in Kansas City, was driving a blue GMC Terrain earlier that evening that he allegedly stole at gunpoint near East 24th Street and Highland Avenue. According to Melissa Underwood, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a caller reported the carjacking to Kansas City, Missouri, police around 6:45 p.m.
Kansas City police spotted the car in the 1500 block of The Paseo around 8 p.m. and gave chase. Burk led officers across state lines into Kansas, where the Kansas City, Kansas, police department, along with the Kansas Highway Patrol and Mission Police Department, participated.
A 21-year-old passenger left the car at 8:17 p.m. and was taken into custody, Underwood said. A highway patrol officer stopped the GMC a few minutes later by forcing it to turn and crash into a guardrail around US 69 Highway and the 18th Street Expressway.
According to police, Burk began shooting at officers from the stationary car. Officers from both Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas returned fire, fatally striking Burk multiple times.
Seven officers in all fired at Burk, including five from Missouri and two from Kansas, Underwood said. No one else was killed or injured.
So far this year, there have been eight fatal officer-involved shootings in Kansas. Monday’s shooting was the second in Kansas City, Kansas, both involving a stolen car.
Police fatally shot Jordan Cole, 18, the night of May 10 after he fled from a stolen Hyundai Sonata in the area of ​​7th Street Trafficway and Interstate 35. Cole encountered some bushes near the southbound on-ramp to Interstate 35, where he shot at police and was then shot by an officer.
A third officer-involved shooting occurred in Kansas City, Missouri, on the night of March 30, when a Gladstone police officer and two Clay County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a man during a traffic stop. Kansas City police said officers fired after an altercation with the driver at North Garfield Avenue and Northeast Englewood Road.
Burk, who was pronounced dead at a KCK hospital on Monday, was charged in 2017 with breaking into a car and tampering with it, according to court documents. Other previous charges include resisting arrest, burglary of two residential buildings and driving with a suspended license.
The 21-year-old passenger has not yet been publicly identified.
The 18th Street Expressway was closed Monday night due to the chase.
According to KCPD data, armed events, including carjackings and shootings, accounted for 6.1% of calls to the Kansas City, Missouri, police department last month. In Kansas City, Kansas, 129 car thefts have been reported this year, which is down 43% from this time last year, according to police data.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the officer-involved shooting and plans to submit its findings to the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office.
According to data collected by the Star, Burk’s death was the twelfth homicide in Kansas City, Kansas, this year. The Star considers police-involved shootings to be homicides when collecting data.
By this time last year, 10 homicides had been reported in KCK, including two police-involved shootings, according to Star data.
This article uses previous reporting by Andrea Klick.
