Police department honors Ward Parkway officers

By: Kelli Bamforth, Staff writer

Sergeant James Buck and Chief Jim Corwin

The stories of Kansas City, Mo., police officers who encountered Ward Parkway Mall shooter David Logsdon on April 29, 2007, have been told. 

Last week, four officers received honors for their response to the multiple crime scenes and for acts that “kept casualties to a minimum” on a day where four individuals lost their lives, including Logsdon.

Sgt. James Buck, formerly of Metro Patrol and the first supervisor to arrive on the scene at Ward Parkway Mall, nominated Officer Ricky Ropka, Officer Bonita Cannon and Sgt. Michael Glass for certificates of commendation.

“There were a lot of people who went above and beyond when you consider the incredible chaos of everything going on,” Buck said. “It was overwhelming for a lot of people and their ability to handle it and do their jobs struck me the most.”

The events began when Ropka and Cannon reported to a check-the-welfare call on Logsdon’s elderly next-door neighbor Patricia Reed. When no one came to the door, the officers forced their way inside and found the woman dead from a gunshot wound.

The officers discovered Reed’s car missing and alerted other police to look for the vehicle. Another officer found the car and encountered Logsdon at a convenience store. Logsdon shot the officer and proceeded to the mall, where witnesses reported shots fired soon after.

As the first supervisor on scene, Buck decided not to order officers to gather outside and organize a response before entering the mall. Police Chief James Corwin said the strategy succeeded in ending Logsdon’s shooting spree and saving lives.

For his part, Buck also received commendation last week.

“I made the conscious decision not to order them to gather and go in in an organized fashion,” Buck said. “En route, the biggest thing I was thinking of was all the exits and entrances, all the people in there and getting our people in there as quickly as possible. I trusted their judgment to get in there quickly and do what they needed to do.

“Looking back, it was the right call to make. Everybody did exactly what they were trained to do. Everybody working together made the difference.”

Prior to a mass shooting in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado, traditional police response to such situations involved gathering agencies outside the scene to organize, Buck said.

“What agencies learned after Columbine was that’s not always feasible,” Buck said. “Our job is to protect lives. As an agency we changed our training to rapid deployment (a strategy in which officers immediately enter a dangerous situation) so that people go in and save as many lives as possible.”

Buck and Glass created an after-action report detailing the day’s events and ways the department could improve.

“As far as the day specifically, nothing dramatic could have changed the outcome,” Buck said. “There were some hindrances to communication and we have addressed ways to communicate as an agency a little quicker.

“Any incident of that magnitude, you wouldn’t be doing your job as an agency unless you sat down and reflected. … We’re constantly re-evaluating and every incident has an after-action report.”

The Ward Parkway shooting occurred less than 48 hours before 4th District at-large Councilwoman Beth Gottstein was sworn in.

“What was remarkable was the cooperative spirit of the police,” Gottstein said. “The police were so incredible. I was unfortunately right there; I walked out of Starbucks just minutes before (Logsdon) came. My car was part of the crime scene.

“I deal with the officers every day in Kansas City, and we have challenges, but I have experienced nothing but high quality every single day. We just had a shooting in Midtown two weeks ago and the response was top-notch.”

Gottstein said what struck her the most is similar events can happen anywhere.

“It can happen three blocks from Leawood, in south Kansas City or up north,” she said. “It’s not geographically based. Folks have to be smart and careful anywhere.

“When you’re dealing with that kind of crime, though, (a person) with untreated mental illness who’s dealing with unemployment, it’s not the response but how to prevent it … and that’s my job.”

One of Gottstein’s priorities is public safety. She said Kansas City police are proactive at every level.

“They come with me to so many neighborhood meetings … they talk real and seem to understand our community,” she said. “There are problems, and we have a long way to go … but it’s been a really exceptional opportunity for me.”