KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Platte County jury found a former Kansas City, Missouri, police officer guilty of second-degree murder last Friday in connection with a deadly shooting in August 2024 outside a Northland Walmart.
Around 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2024, KCPD officers were called to the Walmart at 8551 N. Boardwalk Ave. on a disturbance between two people in the parking lot that escalated into a shooting.
When police arrived, they located a 71-year-old man in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds. The man, later identified as Ronald Barnett, was transported to an area hospital, where he died from his injuries.
The following day, Platte County prosecutors charged Taquiza V. Johnson with one count of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Surveillance video captured the moments leading up to an initial altercation and later when Johnson opened fire, striking Barnett.
Johnson served as a KCPD officer from December 2003 to February 2014. Investigators say he used his former duty weapon in the deadly shooting.
“This brazen killing in broad daylight is simply unbelievable,” Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said in a release Tuesday. “Who can possibly imagine something like this would happen?”
Johnson testified in his own defense during the five-day trial. He told jurors that Barnett had threatened his life and used racial epithets.
“The defendant argued that he was only defending himself because of the earlier threats made to his life by the victim, but the defendant admitted on the witness stand during cross-examination that the victim was not armed and he did not see a weapon,” Zahnd said.
Zahnd said Missouri’s self-defense laws do not cover verbal threats or name-calling.
“A person claiming self-defense must establish that the perceived aggressor possessed, exhibited, or threatened to use a weapon readily capable of lethal force,” Zahnd said. “Deadly force is not justified in response to fear of being grabbed or even punched.”
As part of its deliberations, the jury recommended Johnson be sentenced to life in prison on the second-degree murder charge and an additional 15 years in prison for the armed criminal action charge.
A judge will sentence Johnson on Sept. 14.
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