By Bill Lukitsch
Source The Kansas City Star
The 32-year-old North Kansas City police officer shot and killed during a traffic stop on Tuesday afternoon was part of the same class of recruits as an Independence officer who was also killed in the line of duty 10 months ago, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
Officer Daniel Vasquez, of North Kansas City police, was fatally shot shortly before 11 a.m. near the intersection of 21st Avenue and Clay Street. Authorities said Tuesday that the driver of a sedan exited his car and fired upon Vasquez after being pulled over for an expired temporary license plate.
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Vasquez died at an area hospital. After a brief manhunt, which included a statewide alert issued by the Missouri Highway Patrol, authorities said a subject of interest had surrendered Tuesday afternoon.
Officer Jack Taylor, an Independence police spokesman, said Tuesday that Vasquez was part of the same police academy as slain Independence Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans. Madrid-Evans was shot and killed Sept. 15, while still in field training, as officers were responding to a tip about a person who may have had an active warrant.
Authorities have said Madrid-Evans, 22, was killed during an exchange of gunfire with another man, who also died. Police later identified him as 33-year-old Cody L. Harrison.
Taylor said Vasquez was among the police officers who came to the department with gifts in the wake of Madrid-Evans’ death. He said Vasquez brought in a wooden Thin Blue Line flag that hangs in police headquarters.
Authorities released little information Tuesday about the identity of Vasquez’s suspected shooter. Earlier information offered by authorities as he was actively being sought described him as a white man driving a gray sedan.
Kansas City police were handling the homicide investigation, at the request of North Kansas City police and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. A KCPD police spokesman said a “subject of interest” was being held in police custody on Tuesday evening.
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