Police Press Releases & Community Briefings
Critical incidents and community briefings
As a department, we strive to work in partnership to protect and serve our community with honor, integrity and professionalism. We do this through building trusting relationships with residents and businesses in Lenexa.
We have created this Critical Incidents and Community Briefings webpage to be transparent with residents regarding critical events, while also maintaining the integrity of the investigation process. We appreciate your understanding that it takes time to thoroughly investigate critical incidents. It is always our intention to share information as soon as we can.
If our community has a critical incident, you will find updated information below.
How critical incidents are investigated
Critical incidents involving police officers from Johnson County law enforcement agencies, including Lenexa, are investigated by the Johnson County multi-jurisdictional Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigation Team (OICIIT – pronounced “o-sit”). This includes officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths or other lethal force situations.
OICIIT is a group comprised of well-trained, professional investigators from law enforcement agencies across Johnson County. While we do have members of our department that serve on the OICIIT, those members are excluded when an investigation directly involves one of our officers, which is standard OICIIT practice.
The OICIIT’s task is to conduct a thorough and independent review of the facts of a particular case and document them. This includes interviewing involved officers, witnesses, and victims. This also includes reviewing evidence such as officer's body-worn cameras, in-car camera footage and any existing security or surveillance camera footage.
Our role is to ensure that members of the OICIIT have free and open access to whatever they need for their investigation, including police reports, body camera footage, interviews of all involved persons and anything else they deem necessary for their investigation.
Upon completion of the OICIIT investigation, their report is sent to the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office for review. Ultimately, it is the Johnson County District Attorney that makes the determination as to whether an officer’s actions were legally justified.
In addition to, but separate from the OICIIT investigation, we conduct an internal administrative investigation to investigate if officer’s actions were ethical and within department policy.
Critical incident briefing for incident on June 22, 2025
On Sunday, June 22, 2025, at approximately 3:00 a.m., Lenexa officers responded to a report of a disturbance involving a person armed with a gun at an apartment complex in the 12400 block of W. 97th Terrace.
Upon arrival, officers located an individual inside a parked vehicle near the pool clubhouse. During the encounter with that individual, one Lenexa officer discharged their firearm, striking the individual. The individual was transported by Johnson County Med-Act to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced deceased.
The deceased in this case was identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon, 25, of Grandview, MO.
In the interest of transparency, we are releasing this video compilation which includes the 911 call, and relevant portions of video from the officer’s body worn and in-car cameras, as well as a statement from Lenexa Chief of Police Dawn Layman. Although we were prepared to release the body-worn camera footage in June, we honored a request to wait until the District Attorney had reached a decision. On October 9, 2025, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced(PDF, 691KB) that the Lenexa police officers' use of force in this incident was justified under Kansas law.
Warning: The images and footage show in this video may be disturbing and graphic. Viewer discretion is advised, especially for young or sensitive viewers.
The Critical Incident Briefing video can be watched by clicking on the image above or by going to YouTube.
Published Oct. 9, 2025
Statement from Chief Layman
Below is the text of Lenexa Police Chief Dawn Layman's remarks in the Critical Incident Briefing video about the officer-involved shooting on June 22, 2025.
Hello, I’m Dawn Layman, Chief of Police for the City of Lenexa.
The following video is being shared in the interest of transparency and is intended to provide information regarding the officer-involved shooting that occurred on June 22, 2025, in the 12400 block of W. 97th Terrace, inside the Lenexa Crossing Apartment Complex.
At approximately 3:00 that morning, our dispatch center received a 911 call reporting a shooting near the apartment complex’s swimming pool. The caller was a Spanish speaker, and a language line interpreter was used to assist our dispatcher in communicating with her. The caller initially stated that she had seen someone shoot another person in the pool. As the call continued, she then said that she saw someone pointing a gun at another person’s head.
Multiple Lenexa officers responded immediately. At that time, many critical details were still unknown, including the location of the armed individual.
Upon officers' arrival, they began searching the surrounding area for potential victims, suspects, or witnesses and soon located an individual sitting inside a running vehicle nearby.
As officers approached to speak with the individual inside that car, they observed a firearm in his lap. One officer gave several commands for the individual to put his hands up and also verbalized that he saw a gun. However, the man picked up the gun and began to move it around, first in the direction of the officer who spoke to him, then in the direction of the second officer. Faced with this imminent threat to himself and the other officer, one officer discharged his firearm, striking the individual, who later died from his injuries.
This man has been identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena Chacon, of Grandview, Missouri.
My intent in sharing this video is to provide some context surrounding the circumstances of this event.
Loss of life is always tragic, and we recognize the impact this has on everyone involved. We extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Chacon’s family. I personally reached out to Mr. Chacon’s family the day after this incident and had several conversations with them in the days following.
Our thoughts are also with the two civilian victims in this case — both of whom feared for their lives during the incident, including the woman who courageously called 911 to report what she witnessed.
As Chief, I am committed to ensuring that members of our department who were affected by this incident receive the support and resources they need—particularly the officers who responded to this call.
The video you are about to see is difficult to watch. It reflects the dangerous and unpredictable situations our officers may encounter during the course of their duties.
As you saw, situations requiring the use of force can unfold in a matter of seconds and with little to no warning. Our officers are trained to respond to these rapidly evolving threats with professionalism and sound judgment.
As Chief of Police, I want to assure you that the Lenexa Police Department remains committed to serving our community with honor, integrity, and professionalism in every encounter.