Former Kansas City Police Detective Eric J. DeValkenaere, who was convicted in 2021 for fatally shooting a Black man who had just returned home, will almost certainly not serve his 6-year sentence.
He will only serve a year of it. Missouri Gov.-Elect Mike Kehoe, a friend of the imprisoned cop and his wife, told reporters last week that he will commute DeValkenaere’s sentence when he takes office.
That is, if Missouri’s current governor, Mike Parson, does not pardon him first.
Kehoe said last week, “I met Sarah and Eric before he was jailed—and I would say wrongly.” “I think we should stand by Eric.”
I have made it clear that Eric DeValkenaere will be at home with his family if I win the election for governor. It is still my prayer and hope that it will happen before I become governor.
Returning to September, Parson also said he thought DeValkenaere, 45, should be freed. He told a Kansas City radio station that the case had become political because of an overzealous prosecutor.
It was decided that DeValkenaere, who is white, killed Lamb with a gun in 2019 and was guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter. It was the first time a Kansas City police officer was found guilty of killing a Black man.
After DeValkenaere was found guilty, his family asked the governor for clemency, but Parson said he would wait until after the election to decide what would happen to the officer.
“But I do not like where he is.” KCMO Talk Radio host Pete Mundo talked to Parson about it. “I will just say that.”
During the whole case, it looked like the state’s Republican leaders tipped the scales of justice in DeValkenaere’s favor.
Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri, said the veteran detective’s use of deadly force was reasonable and backed an official review of the case.
Lamb’s family has been fighting what seems like an endless battle against state officials who support DeValkenaere. In March, Missouri’s Supreme Court upheld DeValkenaere’s conviction, ending all of his legal challenges.
Laurie Bey, Lamb’s mother, told the Kansas City Star that the court’s decision showed “that my son’s life mattered.”
Even though they did not have a warrant, DeValkenaere and his partner were responding to a report of a fight between Lamb and his girlfriend. Lamb was chasing the woman in his red pickup truck, but he came home when his roommate called him.
The police were ready for him with their guns drawn. Lamb was backing out of his driveway when police officers in plain clothes and without a warrant showed up and stopped him.
He would be shot and killed in nine seconds. DeValkenaere said the victim had pointed a gun at another officer.
At the former officer’s 2021 trial, evidence showed that he had planted the gun.
Aquil Bey, Lamb’s father, said, “The law spoke clearly. If you want to be the governor for the people, then let the law work for everyone.” He and his wife were worried about the new governor’s friendship with the DeValkenaeres.
“He was not spoiled.” “We are not lucky,” Aquil Bey said. “You should know that I have worked hard every day of my son’s life, and this would never happen.”
A spokeswoman for Kehoe said that the governor-elect met DeValkenaere through the Kansas City lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police before he went to jail. He said that their relationship would not change his mind.
A spokesperson for Kehoe said, “Any action that may be taken by Kehoe in the Governor’s Office would be due to the unfair sentence that Eric received from a woke prosecutor, not their friendship.”
They hurt Lamb’s parents a lot with those words.
Aquil Bey said, “They hit us twice in the gut with this situation.”