Tyrea Pryor

Tyrea Pryor Sr., 39, a father of three, was shot approximately 15 times and killed by Independence, Missouri Police Officers Hunter Soule and Jamie Welsh on March 11, 2022, after a police pursuit ended in a crash. Pryor was left incapacitated and trapped in the wrecked vehicle; an assault-style rifle was found lodged in the car but never brandished, and another officer had already secured it before Soule and Welsh opened fire, believing Pryor was reaching for a pistol. No pistol was ever found — investigators later theorized a pill bottle in his waistband may have been mistaken for one. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced in March 2023, a year after the shooting, that she would not charge either officer, stating it was “indisputable Pryor did not have a gun in his hand” but that officers held a “reasonable belief” a threat existed. Pryor's family filed a $25 million federal lawsuit and formally asked the Department of Justice to investigate after Baker declined to bring the case before a grand jury. No one has ever been charged in Pryor's death.

Independence, MO · Jackson County

• 2022: 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 pursuit, the crash, and the shooting, per Missouri State Highway Patrol investigative interviews and body camera video released publicly by the Pryor family's attorneys.
• Officer Soule initially responded to a disturbance call and began following Pryor's vehicle after seeing him grab an unknown item; the car fled and crashed a short time later near U.S. 24 and Noland Road.
• Pryor was trapped and immobilized in the wrecked vehicle; two female passengers were ordered out and complied, but Pryor could not exit.
• An assault-style rifle found lodged between the driver's seat and center console was secured by a third responding officer, Alex Steele, before Welsh said he believed he saw Pryor reach for a pistol in his waistband and shouted “Hey, he's got a gun”; officers then fired more than 20 shots into the vehicle, striking Pryor approximately 15 times.
• No pistol was ever recovered from the scene; investigators told Pryor's family they theorized a pill bottle hidden in his waistband may have been mistaken for a weapon.
• Body camera footage released by the family's attorneys captured an officer saying “I don't see a pistol” moments after the shooting.
• Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced in March 2023 that neither officer would be charged, stating in her office's letter that it was “indisputable Pryor did not have a gun in his hand” when he was shot, but that the officers' “reasonable belief” a threat existed meant criminal charges were not supportable.
• Pryor's family, represented by civil rights attorneys including Harry Daniels and John Burris, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit seeking at least $25 million and formally requested a Department of Justice investigation after Baker declined to present the case to a grand jury; a third related lawsuit was filed in 2025.

• Whether Officer Welsh's belief that Pryor was reaching for a pistol was objectively reasonable, given no pistol was ever found and a rifle already visible in the car had already been secured by another officer before the shooting began, was disputed by the family's attorneys and was never tested at any criminal trial since the prosecutor declined to bring the case before a grand jury at all.
• Whether the item mistaken for a pistol was in fact a pill bottle, as investigators theorized to the family, was never conclusively confirmed in any public accounting reviewed for this summary.
• The full content of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's independent investigative report, beyond the prosecutor's public declination letter, has not been made comprehensively public.

• KCUR — “Family of Black man killed by Independence police sue for $25 million: 'We want justice'”
• NBC News — “Federal lawsuit filed over fatal 2022 police shooting of Kansas City-area suspect”
• Kansas City Star (via AOL News) — “Agonizing video shows Black man posed no threat when Independence police killed him”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs