Kansas City authorities are urging the public not to take justice into their own hands after a store employee allegedly strangled to death a man he believed was stealing, FOX4 reports.
“Make no mistake, it is law enforcement’s job to do the policing, no one else’s,” Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree told reporters Thursday at a press conference, according to KMBC-TV.
Dupree made the remarks in announcing a second-degree murder charge against 39-year-old Carl Kemppainen, the manager of an O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Kansas City, Kansas, who is accused of killing an alleged shoplifter.
Around 6 p.m. Tuesday, first responders were dispatched to the store and found an unresponsive man later identified as 23-year-old Diamond Steen. Medics attempted to resuscitate Steen, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Store employees are said to have suspected Steen and another person of shoplifting vehicle maintenance fluid and confronted them. The situation then grew violent, with the employees ultimately overpowering the two men and holding them down outside the store.
The death was ruled a homicide caused by strangulation, with Dupree noting that Steen’s “airway was completely stopped,” according to the Kansas City Star.
A second individual was hospitalized with minor injuries.
Charges may also be filed against others involved in the incident, while Kemppainen is free on a $125,000 bond.
In a statement to FOX4, O’Reilly Auto Parts said: “O’Reilly Auto Parts is deeply disturbed by the events, death and injuries that occurred at our store in Kansas City, Kansas. We are cooperating fully with the police investigation.”
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[Feature Photo: Carl Kemppainen/Wyandotte County Detention Center]
