Suspected Walmart shoplifter dies after ‘swallowing something’ while in KCPD custody
KANSAS CITY, Mo. May 6 2024 Kansas City police are investigating after a man died while in police custody, after allegedly stealing from a Walmart.
KCPD said two off-duty officers were working security Thursday night at the Walmart off Northwest Barry Road and I-29 around 6:30 p.m.
They took a man into custody for a shoplifting investigation. After they took him to the security office, police said the man tried to swallow, quote, “an unknown object.”
Officers tried to get him to spit it out, but he refused, according to KCPD. The man had trouble breathing and passed out not long after.
Officers tried to revive him until paramedics got there, and the man was declared dead at the hospital.
Police detectives have opened a death investigation.
