The Missouri man who killed a police officer years ago was executed Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin Johnson died after being injected with pentobarbital, making it the state’s second execution this year, the Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday.
“Johnson’s attorneys didn’t deny that he killed Officer William McEntee in 2005, but contended he was sentenced to death in part because he is Black. But courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to stop the execution,” the outlet said.
Video footage from 2005 showed officers at the scene:
Prior to his injection, Johnson declined to make a final statement. He was 19-years-old when he shot and killed McEntee.
“His children were devastated that their dad was murdered being seven, ten, and 13,” Mary McEntee, the police officer’s wife, said during a recent press conference.
“They didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. It took 17 years of grieving and pushing forward to get to this point today. This is something I hope no other family has to go through because you truly never forget or get over,” she added:
McEntee, who was a police officer in the Kirkwood suburb of St. Louis, went with fellow officers to Johnson’s residence on July 5, 2005, to serve a warrant for his arrest after allegedly violating his probation regarding an assault.
When officers arrived at the home, Johnson woke his 12-year-old brother, who had a congenital heart defect.
Moments after the child ran to a neighbor’s home he experienced a seizure. Johnson later claimed McEntee prevented his mother from going into the home to help the child, who later died.
McEntee was in the area hours later to investigate unrelated reports about fireworks and while he sitting in his car questioning neighborhood children, Johnson approached and shot him in the leg, head, and torso.
“Johnson then got into the car and took McEntee’s gun,” the AP report continued:
The court filing said Johnson walked down the street and told his mother that McEntee “let my brother die” and “needs to see what it feels like to die.” Though she told him, “That’s not true,” Johnson returned to the shooting scene and found McEntee alive, on his knees near the patrol car. Johnson shot McEntee in the back and in the head, killing him.
In January, Breitbart News reported 346 police officers were shot in the line of duty last year and according to the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), 63 of those officers succumbed to their wounds.
In addition, the “FOP also points out that 130 officers were shot in ‘ambush-style attacks,’ noting that such attacks on officers in 2021 went up 115 percent from 2020,” the report said.
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