KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In some ways, their tales are completely different.
However, within the ways in which matter most, Narene Stokes and Sheila Albers mentioned it is the similarities which have introduced them collectively, beginning and ending with a mom’s love.
Sheila and John Albers
From the second Sheila Albers and her husband adopted John from an orphanage in Belarus, they had been smitten with their blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.
“He at all times type of walked with a swagger, like he was very assured,” Sheila recalled.
As he grew, he carried that confidence onto the soccer subject, certainly one of his passions. However, behind the bravado of this proficient athlete, there was ache, too.
“We adopted John when he was 18 months outdated, and he struggled with that and never figuring out who his organic mother was,” Sheila defined.
Then, on Jan. 20, 2018, a few of these struggles got here to a head.
The 17-year-old was house alone, and posted a video to social media threatening to hurt himself, prompting buddies to name police to test on him.
When police arrived, John was backing his household’s minivan out of the driveway.
KSHB 41 obtained doorbell video and dashcam footage that was included in the OSIT report via an open information request.
In it, the viewer sees the storage door open, then John begins pulling out of the driveway. At that time, police had not made contact with the 17-year-old. As John began reversing straight down the driveway, then-Overland Park Police Officer Clayton Jenison shot into the car. After one spherical, the van seems to spin uncontrolled and Jenison fires once more, for a complete of 13 pictures fired.
Jenison mentioned he was afraid the van was going to hit him. One month later, the Johnson County District Legal professional mentioned a assessment decided Jenison was justified, as a result of he was within the path of the accelerating van.
“He felt like he was the one who was going to get run over — that the car was going to strike him,” defined District Legal professional Steve Howe throughout a 2018 press convention.
The household disputed those findings.
“In order that was the start of the false narrative, when, in reality, John pulled the automotive out of the storage going 2.5 miles per hour in a straight line,” Sheila mentioned.
Narene and Ryan Stokes
Narene Stokes describes her son Ryan as “all boy,” a younger man who liked his household and buddies and had a passion for playing sports.
“He tried all of them, however basketball was his love,” she remembered.
As he grew older, Ryan joined PAL, the Police Athletic League, enjoying basketball with native cops.
“He already had a reference to the police, a friendship,” his mother defined.
Due to that, Narene mentioned she was much more shocked to be taught it was a police officer who ended her son’s life.
On July 28, 2013, the 24-year-old and his buddies had been on the outskirts of the Energy and Mild District.
A scuffle broke out when two males left a bar and accused Ryan’s group of buddies of stealing a cellphone. Ryan’s pal maintained the 2 males who accused them had been drunk, and protested they did not have their telephone. Nonetheless, it was sufficient to draw police consideration.
A few of that confrontation was caught on a cellphone digicam and was later proven as proof in court docket.
“After they present Ryan, he was making an attempt to make peace, after which he was operating to attempt to get away from the world, from the difficulty that was occurring there,” Narene defined.
Ryan’s buddies later informed her police used pepper spray, leaving the group’s driver unable to see. That is when Narene mentioned Ryan ran to his pal’s automotive in a close-by car parking zone.
As he ran, witnesses mentioned he gave the impression to be holding up his pants. However Officer William Thompson mentioned he noticed Ryan holding a gun.
That is when Thompson testified he fired, pondering Ryan was advancing towards fellow police officer, Daniel Straub.
However, Straub in addition to three others who had been close by all testified they did not see a gun.
Straub, who was dealing with Ryan on the time, mentioned in court docket the 24-year-old gave the impression to be surrendering when he was shot.
The Stokes’ household lawyer, Brian McCallister, defined the differing testimony from cops.
“William Thompson mentioned he yelled 5 to seven instances in his loudest command voice, ‘Present me your fingers, drop the gun.’ Daniel Straub says ‘I by no means heard a phrase,’” McCallister mentioned. “Officer Jones, William Thompson’s companion did not hear these instructions. Two different officers off to the facet did not hear these instructions.”
“Ryan did not have an opportunity to carry his fingers as much as the officer. He was shot within the again,” McCallister mentioned.
A gun was discovered within the car, but it surely was registered to the motive force, Ryan’s pal, who testified he left it within the automotive that evening.
Nonetheless, the household’s lawyer counters the mere presence of a firearm on the scene altered the account police first launched to the media.
“Inside half-hour of Ryan’s loss of life — half-hour, earlier than any investigation was performed — they’d Ryan Stokes in a standoff with a gun, a hazard to cops, and none of that was true,” McCallister mentioned.
KSHB 41 Information requested Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, police about that preliminary media launch. Though the discharge predates any of the present spokespeople with KCPD, they did share this assertion:
“The results of the occasions is very tragic for the relations and all concerned. We’re sorry for the ache that Mr. Stokes’ household skilled. This case is presently nonetheless in civil litigation course of, and customarily we don’t touch upon particulars of circumstances below civil litigation to make sure equity for all sides concerned.”
As for the end result of the officer-involved capturing eight years in the past, inside days of Ryan’s loss of life, a grand jury deemed the capturing justified as a result of the officer thought he had a gun and thought one other officer was at risk.
Differing outcomes
The Albers had been awarded a settlement in a civil swimsuit.
As soon as that course of was over, Sheila began digging into John’s case, submitting numerous open information requests.
Ultimately she discovered Jenison was paid a $70,000 severance payment by the town.
Then roughly one 12 months in the past, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the case.
“I really feel like there may be lastly an impartial, neutral investigation being performed of John’s loss of life,” Sheila mentioned.
Because the 2013 capturing, the Stokes household has filed two appeals, arguing there was proof that wasn’t heard. But it surely’s been eight years, and the household has but to see the sunshine of a courtroom.
Narene informed the KSHB 41 I-Staff she feels as if the system hopes she’ll get drained and can give up combating.
“However I can not… I will not, as a result of he was my solely son, my child boy,” she mentioned.
Not like the Albers’ case, the Stokes household has been unable to get an out of doors company such because the FBI or the U.S. Legal professional Common’s Workplace to look into their case, regardless of direct pleas from native civil rights leaders over time.
RELATED | Family of man killed by officer in 2013 wants KCPD to review policy
Narene mentioned she believes one cause for that is that Ryan’s story did not get practically as a lot media consideration John’s case did — and she or he’s proper.
Within the sake of full transparency, KSHB 41 Information checked our personal archives.
Since Ryan Stokes’ loss of life, his case was talked about 58 instances, a median of seven.25 instances a 12 months, on KSHB-TV.
Since John Albers died, his case was talked about 146 instances, a median of 36.5 instances a 12 months.
McCallister additionally pointed to a different obtrusive distinction: an absence of video in Ryan’s loss of life.
“If you find yourself up towards qualified immunity and it’s important to show what a lifeless man heard and did not hear, what a lifeless man noticed and did not see, you don’t have any witnesses,” McCallister mentioned. “When you will have a video digicam, you will have an eyewitness.”
Worldwide consideration
Just lately, The Guardian, a world information group, profiled both the Albers and the Stokes cases.
The creator, Susan Berardi, mentioned regardless of the variations, the similarities ought to function a wakeup name to any mother or father.
“It is a mother story. I’m a mother. There are many mothers on the market and both with John or with Ryan, relying on the place you might be and who you, are it might completely occur to you,” Berardi mentioned.
A fashioned friendship and push for police reform
Narene and Sheila hope to mix their voices of their push for police reform. They’re calling for extra disaster response coaching for officers and extra civilian oversight in opinions of police-involved shootings.
It is a partnership that was fashioned at a help group assembly for mothers a couple of 12 months in the past.
“Man, we met and it was identical to a click on,” Sheila recalled.
Each moms mentioned they perceive one another’s ache in methods most others cannot.
“What do you suppose introduced you two collectively?” KSHB 41 I-Staff’s Caitlin Knute requested each mothers.
“Nicely, a bit piece of God. I believe we had been supposed to satisfy, and I believe Ryan and John needed us to satisfy,” Sheila mentioned, as she and Narene stood hand in hand, smiling at each other.
Right now, they are not solely shut buddies, they’re allies of their struggle for justice for his or her sons.
Though their particular person tales are rooted in sorrow, their mixed story is certainly one of power, help and sisterhood.
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