‘Get him off the street’: Donnie Sanders’ family calls for charges against KCPD officer

Reshonda Sanders couldn’t believe it.

The Kansas City police officer who fatally shot two people during an encounter Friday night was the same officer who shot and killed her unarmed brother, Donnie Sanders, in March 2020. The same officer accused of excessive force in two other cases — one involving a pregnant woman and another involving a teenage boy.

The Star on Monday identified that officer as Blayne Newton. No law enforcement agencies have confirmed Newton’s involvement in Friday’s shooting, because the investigation is ongoing, but three people with knowledge of the investigation named Newton as the shooting officer. The Star is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

“There is something terribly wrong with this officer,” said Sanders, who said she didn’t know that Newton was back patrolling Kansas City’s streets.

She joins a host of community voices who’ve expressed concerns with Newton still being on the force.

“Maybe it’s time to get him off the street and make him stay inside the precinct behind a desk doing desk duty,” Sanders said. “Or maybe charge him now.”

Prior shooting, use of force

On March 12, 2020, Newton was patrolling near 51st Street and Prospect Avenue when he made a U-turn and started to follow Sanders, 47, who was driving a Chevy Tahoe, according to released dash camera footage. Newton followed Sanders as he turned into an alley between Wabash and Prospect avenue. Then he turned on his lights and sirens.

Footage shows Sanders pull over, then get out of the car and start running. Newton began chasing him on foot as they ran out of the view of the dash camera. But the camera picked up audio of Newton yelling at Sanders to stop and show his hands.

Newton then fired five shots at Sanders, striking him three times. Sanders died soon after at the hospital.

The police department said Sanders was not carrying a weapon. They found a cellphone in his pocket.

“My brother lost his life for no apparent reason,” Reshonda Sanders said this week, echoing a refrain she’s said many times to media in the past three years. “Why can’t they see there’s something terribly wrong with this Officer Newton?”

Newton was not charged in Sanders’ killing. The Jackson County Prosecutor said they did not have sufficient evidence to file criminal charges.

Since then, Sanders’ family filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Board of Police Commissioners. The civil case is ongoing.

A few months later, in October 2020, Newton was seen on video allegedly putting his knee on the back of 25-year-old Deja Stallings’, who was more than eight months pregnant at the time. Police have not confirmed Newton’s involvement, but Stallings’ attorney has verified Newton was the officer who arrested the woman.

Then, in March 2022, Newton was part of a $325,000 settlement after a 17-year-old Kansas City boy was punched more than 10 times, tackled and tasered by three KCPD officers, including Newton, in 2019.

Use of force, the latest shooting

On Friday, Newton noticed a pickup truck stopped near the McDonald’s at 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is investigating the shooting, footage from the dashboard camera from the officer’s car showed a person lean out the driver’s side window of the truck and point a gun at either a sedan or a minivan stopped nearby.

A passenger in the pickup truck then stepped out of the vehicle and started walking with a gun in their hand. They got back in the truck with their gun and then sped away, according to the highway patrol.

Newton’s car pulled forward next to the minivan, blocking the dashboard camera from recording the interaction between the people in the minivan and the officer, said Sgt. Andrew Bell, with the highway patrol.

Newton then fired through the driver’s side window and into the minivan, which had six occupants. Bell said shell casings found at the scene suggest that someone inside the minivan also fired a weapon. Four guns were also found in the vehicle.

The driver and a passenger, Kristen Fairchild, 42, and Marcell Nelson, 42, were killed. Another passenger sustained minor injuries in the shooting. Two other passengers walked away without any physical injuries, police said.

The investigation is ongoing.

The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed.