Kansas City police officer’s shooting trial goes to judge

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The fate of a White Kansas City police detective charged in the fatal shooting of a Black man is now in the hands of a judge.

Closing arguments were held Friday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Eric DeValkenaere.

Prosecutors said DeValkenaere violated the rights of Cameron Lamb when he shot him in December 2019 as Lamb sat in a pickup truck in his backyard.

They say two detectives who saw Lamb speeding followed him into his yard and shot him and suggested that police might have planted evidence.

Attorneys for DeValkenaere argued that he fired because he believed Lamb was pointing a gun at another detective.