Bodycam footage shows Missouri deputy fired 9 times in fatal shooting of teen

Local National admin October 7, 2026 0 Comments

Bodycam footage shows Missouri deputy fired 9 times in fatal shooting of teen

Attorneys for the family of a Lee’s Summit, Mo., teen who was fatally shot by a deputy in May released body camera footage of the shooting on Monday as they continued to emphasize their belief that the shooting was unjustified.

Saveion McConnell, 19, was fatally shot along a highway southeast of Kansas City, Mo., after a short pursuit and an earlier shooting in a vehicle that he had been linked to.

The attorneys for McConnell’s family released two video clips from the night of the May 1 shooting that were filmed by a body camera worn by Odessa police officer Nathan Holmberg.

In the first clip, Holmberg can be heard talking on the phone as law enforcement searched for McConnell around 3:30 a.m. At one point, Holmberg says, “We’re just sitting here, staring at a wood line, trying to find a Black kid at night. That’s always fun.”

The second clip from shortly before 4 a.m. begins about one minute before the shooting as Holmberg and a Johnson County deputy stop McConnell along the highway.

At first, McConnell backs toward the officers but then runs off, and law enforcement pursues him. Holmberg jumps in his vehicle and catches up to McConnell as Lafayette County deputy Kenneth Lewie holds McConnell at gunpoint and yells at him to get on the ground.

As Holmberg yells that he is going to use his Taser, McConnell can be seen pulling up his shirt. Lewie then fires nine shots at him, including several after he has fallen to the ground.

Saveion McConnell shooting

Just before the shooting, Lewie’s vehicle struck McConnell, and the family’s attorneys said they believe Lewie either intended to strike him or disregarded that risk.

“Either way, it was a dangerous and disproportionate use of force,” they said.

Attorney Joshua M. Levin said in a statement that McConnell was unarmed, had stopped running. He added: “Moving his hands toward his waist violated no command, and it appears consistent with a young man who had just been knocked down by a police car trying to pull up his pants so he could get on the ground as ordered.”

“If Deputy Lewie truly believed Saveion was reaching for a gun, at a minimum he should have ordered him to show his hands and given him a chance to comply,” he said. “Instead, he opened fire from just a few feet away, ignoring the time, distance, and cover that officers are trained to use before resorting to deadly force.”

Levin said that nothing could justify Lewie’s firing several shots at McConnell after he was incapacitated on the ground. The deputy, he said, used “unreasonable and excessive” deadly force.

Missouri prosecutor’s decision

When Johnson County Prosecutor Robert Russell announced last month that Lewie wouldn’t face criminal charges for the shooting, he pointed to McConnell “reaching with his left hand raising his T-shirt and his right hand reaching for his waistband as if to grab something.”

Russell said he was declining to file charges in the shooting, writing that it would be difficult to find Lewie did not have a reasonable belief of injury or death based on McConnell’s actions. He said prosecutors would be required to disprove self-defense in the shooting and said he believed a jury would find the deputy justified in using deadly force.

Lewie said he believed McConnell was reaching for a weapon in his waistband, according to Russell’s memo about the decision.

In his memo, Russell wrote that before the shooting, “McConnell came into contact with the deputy’s vehicle,” and noted that Lewie later said “he did not intentionally hit McConnell with his vehicle and that he was braking before the contact with McConnell.”

Family attorney Benjamin L. Crump said in a statement that McConnell had his whole life ahead of him and that “Black families in this country know this story far too well.”

“Once again, an unarmed young Black man has been killed by police in this country,” he said. “Before officers ever found Saveion, one of them said, ‘Trying to find a Black kid at night, that’s always fun.’ That comment is reprehensible. No parent should ever have to hear a police officer talk about the search for their child as if it were sport.”

Earlier shooting

According to Russell’s memo, McConnell had been with a group that went from Lee’s Summit to Warrensburg for a party late on April 30 into the early morning hours of May 1.

Passengers in the vehicle said that McConnell had acquired a Glock pistol before leaving the party, Russell wrote.

The group left and as it was traveling near the intersection of U.S. 50 and Missouri Route 131, the gun went off and the juvenile driver, a girl, was struck, Russell wrote.

The girl said McConnell had been sitting behind her in the car and alleged that he had been the person who shot her. A passenger said that McConnell and another occupant of the vehicle had been passing the Glock between them when it went off. Deputies found two firearms, the Glock handgun and an “AR-style” rifle, in the vehicle.

The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment and later released.

Later, McConnell was spotted walking along U.S. 50 and was stopped by law enforcement.

This story was originally published October 6, 2026 at 7:43 PM with the headline “Bodycam footage shows Missouri deputy fired 9 times in fatal shooting of teen.”