A 26-year-old Kansas police officer was killed when police say a suspect deliberately plowed into him whereas fleeing authorities throughout a pursuit.
Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Police Officer Hunter Simoncic was deploying cease sticks in response to the pursuit early Tuesday when the suspect drove towards him and struck him, then continued to flee the world, police mentioned.
Simoncic was transported to an space hospital, the place he was pronounced useless, police mentioned.
The suspect — Dennis Mitchell III, 31, of Kansas Metropolis — was taken into custody after crashing the car and was arrested on suspicion of first-degree homicide, based on the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
“This was an intentional act, a willful act, to evade custody by placing the officer,” Kansas Metropolis Police Chief Karl Oakman mentioned throughout a press briefing Tuesday, calling the loss of life of the officer “devastating.”
“It is simply tough. It is mindless,” he mentioned. “I’ve no phrases for it.”
Kansas Metropolis, Kansas Police Officer Hunter Simoncic is seen in a photograph proven throughout a police press briefing on Aug. 26, 2025.
KMBC
The incident unfolded shortly round 12:30 a.m., when officers with the Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Police Division had been dispatched to a name of photographs fired, based on the KBI. Officers shortly discovered Mitchell unconscious within the driver’s seat of a truck, the KBI mentioned.
“As officers approached the driving force, he awoke and fled the scene,” the KBI mentioned in a release.
Mitchell deserted the car for one more truck that was “stashed within the woods” and continued fleeing from officers, Oakman mentioned.
Throughout the pursuit, Simoncic exited his car to stage cease sticks, in an try to soundly puncture and deflate the tires on the fleeing car, police mentioned.
“The suspect continued via the cease sticks and veered his car instantly at Officer Simoncic, placing him on the scene,” Oakman mentioned.
Shortly earlier than 1 a.m., Mitchell crashed the truck, KBI mentioned. He was taken into custody and handled at an space hospital earlier than being booked into the Wyandotte County Jail, based on the KBI.
He additionally faces costs of vehicular murder, fleeing or making an attempt to elude a police officer, theft, legal possession of a firearm, and aggravated failure to look, the KBI mentioned. Formal costs are pending, police mentioned. It’s unclear if he has an legal professional presently.
A photograph of Dennis Mitchell III.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation
Police later discovered that each vans pushed by the suspect had been reported stolen, based on the KBI.
Oakman mentioned the suspect has a number of excellent warrants, however didn’t go into element amid the investigation, which is being carried out by the KBI.
Simoncic was following protocol in deploying the stage sticks, the police chief mentioned.
“This was a scenario that we do throughout the metro hundreds of instances a yr, deploying cease sticks, and this particular person felt the necessity to run Hunter down and kill him,” Oakman mentioned. “That isn’t a car accident. This was an intentional act of murder on a police officer.”
Simoncic, who was from Galesburg, Kansas, graduated from the Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Police Division Police Academy in 2023. He’s survived by his mom, father and brother, Oakman mentioned.
Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner condemned the “shameful acts of violence” in the neighborhood.
“I went to the hospital — what phrases do you say to a household, a brother, a mom and a father, grieving, figuring out that that life has been snuffed out and it did not need to be?” Garner mentioned throughout the press briefing.
Simoncic volunteered to learn and mentor kids in native colleges, the mayor mentioned, including, “That claims quite a bit about the kind of particular person he was.”
“My coronary heart hurts for this police division, for our chief, for his command workers, for all of the women and men of the Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, Police Division, for all our public security professionals, for our neighborhood,” Garner mentioned. “I simply do not have lots of phrases to say to consolation this neighborhood. And typically, saying, ‘Ideas and prayers,’ simply is not sufficient. It is simply going to take much more than that.”
