Group honors officer who was killed by suspect last week

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – A group of about two dozen people gathered Saturday to pay their respects to the 22-year-old Independence police officer killed in a shooting earlier in the week.

The small crowd gathered outside Centerpoint Medical Center as a motorcade escorted Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans’s body from the hospital to the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s office.

Madrid-Evans died Wednesday after a confrontation with a man who was being sought for violating parole.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the suspect fired a handgun at Madrid-Evans and his partner, who returned fire.

The suspect, 33-year-old Cody L. Harrison, died at the scene and Madrid-Evans died at a hospital later.