New lawsuit filed against KCPD officer who shot 3 people, killing 2

Another lawsuit has been filed against a Kansas City police officer who killed three people and faces several other excessive force allegations.

Officer Blayne Newton shot three people in June 2023, killing two of them at an intersection near 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard. The teenager who was shot in the head survived.

According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court, no one pointed a gun at Newton during the incident.

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The lawsuit includes wrongful death claims as well as counting beatings on behalf of the surviving victim or, alternatively, a negligence claim. It concluded that the victims posed no threat to Newton and that the officer “used unreasonable force because the use of deadly force was not necessary under the circumstances.”

Newton remains on duty in the patrol office, Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a spokesman for the department, said Friday.

He added that KCPD typically does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

The Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project supported the family of triple shooting victims.

“Blayne Newton was allowed to destroy the lives of many people and was not held accountable for it,” said Steve Young, co-founder of KC LEAP.

“This is completely unacceptable. We look forward to the day when he no longer has a badge or a gun.”

Triple shooting

On June 9, 2023, Newton was driving when he noticed a disturbance between two vehicles. The person in the driver’s side of the truck pointed a firearm out the window at the white van and then drove away.

Dashboard camera footage reviewed by The Star showed Newton, who was behind the truck, drove up to the passenger side of the white van and opened fire. The van rolled through the intersection before coming to a stop.

The front-seat passenger, Marcell Nelson, 42, who was armed, was killed, according to attorney John Picerno, who filed the lawsuit. The driver, Kristen Fairchild, 42, was unarmed. She also died. The teenager in the back seat was also hit. Two other juveniles in the back seat were not struck.

Footage from other officers described the scene as “shit.” Another said: “You can’t make this up.”

The Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the shooting. He closed the case Oct. 2 and sent it to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, said Cpl. Justin Ewing, patrol spokesman.

No action has been taken yet, according to Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

History of the use of force

Newton, who has worked for the department since 2017, has previously been the subject of allegations of excessive force.

A lawsuit filed earlier this year accuses him of assaulting a woman at a Walmart store in Platte County. Newton was working off-duty, but was wearing a Kansas City Police uniform and driving a patrol car.

Bermeeka Mitchell began live-streaming the arrest when Newton allegedly “grabbed and twisted both of her arms in a forceful manner,” her lawsuit said, then placed the heel of his shoe on her foot and began grinding on it.

According to court documents, the Kansas City Police Department’s Bureau of Community Complaints upheld Mitchell’s allegations of excessive force. The OCC’s May 2023 letter said disciplinary action had been taken but did not provide details.

On March 12, 2020, Newton shot and killed 47-year-old unarmed man Donnie Sanders after a traffic stop near Prospect Avenue. A federal lawsuit is pending in Sanders’ death.

Later that year, Newton was accused of placing his knee in the back of a woman who was nine months pregnant during her arrest.

He was also one of three officers charged with beating and using a stun gun on a teenager in 2019.

The Kansas City Police Department has paid out more than $6.8 million in settlements for incidents including a police chase, unlawful confinement and excessive use of force between February 2023 and February 2024, according to a review of documents by The Star.