New suspect charged
in shooting case
by Ivan Foley
Landmark editor
There was a twist last week in the investigation into
the incident involving shots being fired at two Missouri
State Highway Patrol troopers.
The twist came when the Highway Patrol removed a 34-year-old
Kansas City man as a suspect, and instead sought charges
against Derrick Thomas Shockley, 18.
Also charged in the incident is 18-year-old Ariel Lugo.
Authorities say Lugo had initially pegged the 34-year-old
man as the shooter in the case, then when authorities
developed new information and confronted him with it,
Lugo said it was Shockley who was involved in the crime
along with Lugo.
"The 34-year-old man is no longer considered a suspect
in the case," Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd
said this week, though he added the man was being held
as a fugitive out-of-state stemming from a warrant in
Arkansas.
Zahnd’s office has charged Lugo and Shockey, both
of Kansas City, with assaulting a law enforcement officer
and resisting arrest. Shockley is also charged with armed
criminal action.
The charges stem from a Feb. 17 incident in which shots
were fired at two Missouri Highway Patrolmen after an
attempted traffic stop in Platte County. According to
court documents, five shots were fired—allegedly
by Shockley after he leaned out the passenger's side window—at
one trooper’s vehicle and two shots were fired at
the other trooper’s vehicle.
Documents filed in court indicate that at 11:17 p.m.
on Feb. 17, Highway Patrol Sergeant Sgt. Daniel Green
attempted to stop a maroon Ford Ranger pickup truck for
failing to stop for a red light at the intersection of
72nd Street and Prairie View Road in Kansas City, North.
The truck failed to stop for the patrol vehicle and instead
turned off its headlights as it drove into a residential
area.
One of the first three shots struck the front bumper
of Sgt. Green's patrol car about a half inch above the
top edge of the license plate near the center. Green continued
to pursue the vehicle through the neighborhood until Trooper
Michael Petlansky intervened and became the primary pursuit
vehicle.
Shockley allegedly leaned out the vehicle, sat in the
window opening and fired two additional shots at Petlansky's
vehicle.
Lugo and Shockley were ultimately arrested following
a Feb. 24 canvas for the pickup. Information from the
TIPS Hotline also contributed to Shockley’s arrest.
Lugo and Shockley are each being held in the Platte County
Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bonds.
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