Donnie Sanders

Donnie Sanders, 47, was shot three times and killed by Kansas City, Missouri Police Officer Blayne Newton on March 12, 2020, after a foot chase that began with what prosecutors later called a “pretextual” traffic stop — Newton had no radar equipment or training to legally have clocked Sanders for speeding in the first place. Sanders fled on foot into an alley; Newton fired five shots, striking him three times. Police initially said Sanders was unarmed, carrying only a cellphone. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker declined to charge Newton in March 2021, citing a witness who said Sanders appeared to be pointing something at the officer. Newton remained on the force and, within the following years, accumulated multiple excessive force allegations — including kneeling on a nine-months-pregnant woman's back during an arrest — before fatally shooting two more people in a single 2026 encounter. Prosecutor Baker then publicly called for Newton's firing, citing “years of institutional failure to act.” No one has ever been charged in Sanders's death.

Kansas City, MO · Jackson County

• 2020: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The traffic stop, the foot pursuit, and the shooting, per the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office's investigative report and Kansas City Star reporting on Officer Blayne Newton's later record.
• Newton initiated what the prosecutor's office later formally classified as a “pretextual” stop, suspecting Sanders of speeding despite having no radar equipment or specialized training that would have legally permitted him to issue a speeding citation.
• Sanders pulled into an alley and fled on foot; Newton chased him, and though the dashboard camera did not capture a clear view of the two men, it recorded Newton yelling commands before firing five shots, three of which struck Sanders.
• Police announced the day after the shooting that Sanders had been unarmed, carrying only a cellphone in his pocket.
• Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker declined to charge Newton in March 2021, stating a witness corroborated Newton's account that Sanders appeared to be pointing something at him, and that the evidence was insufficient to prove excessive force beyond a reasonable doubt.
• Newton remained on active duty after the shooting; later in 2020 he was accused of placing his knee on the back of a woman who was nine months pregnant during an arrest, and he had previously been one of three officers accused of beating and using a Taser on a teenager in 2019.
• In a single encounter in 2026, Newton fatally shot two more people, bringing his total to three people killed in the line of duty; Kansas City had by then paid millions of dollars in civil settlements connected to allegations of excessive force by Newton.
• Following the 2026 shooting, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker publicly called on the Kansas City Police Department to fire Newton, writing that his continued employment “posed a serious risk to the public” and that the deaths were “the result of years of institutional failure to act.”
• The Sanders shooting and the 2020 protests it helped prompt led KCPD to adopt several reforms, including department-wide body cameras, transferring officer-involved shooting investigations to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, a duty-to-intervene policy, a chokehold ban, and an anonymous internal complaint process.

• Whether Sanders in fact made a gesture that could reasonably be mistaken for pointing a weapon, as the corroborating witness statement suggested, or whether officers misperceived an unarmed man reaching for or holding his cellphone, was never independently tested at any criminal trial since none was brought.
• Why Officer Newton was permitted to remain on active patrol duty for years despite an escalating, well-documented pattern of excessive force allegations — spanning a pregnant woman, a teenager, and Sanders's death — before ultimately killing two more people, has not been fully explained beyond the prosecutor's general public statement about institutional failure.
• The specific internal disciplinary reviews, if any, conducted after each individual excessive force allegation against Newton prior to the 2026 shootings have not been made comprehensively public.

• CNN — “Kansas City officer will not face charges in the killing of an unarmed man in 2020”
• KCUR — “Jackson County Prosecutor calls on KCPD to fire officer who's allegedly killed 3 people”
• NBC News — “Kansas City officer won't be charged in shooting death of Donnie Sanders”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs