Another Warrior for Justice!

I have known John Kurtz (left) and his wife, Patricia, for many years. Patricia is a teacher and formerly served on the Kansas City School Board. John is a lawyer.

I used to work for the agency where John made a his first, major contribution to the community, the Missouri Council on Criminal Justice (MCCJ). John was a legend at MCCJ for his untiring advocacy in the development of innovative police and court services in Western Missouri. (When I worked at MCCJ, I was responsible for juvenile grants. In that position, I funded DeLaSalle, and became extremely impressed with their work and the founding genius of Godfrey Kobets, who later hired me.)

John entered law school while working at MCCJ, and then went to work for the Public Defender's office. He later became a private attorney, but he never lost his passion for justice and helping the "underdog".

I was such an "underdog" in November 2002 when I called John and asked him for help and advice. Two officers from the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) had shot my son the week before in a stand-off in the living room of my house. Aaron had been depressed and had made a crank call to the police. When I allowed the police into our house on November 11, 2002, Aaron stood silently in front of them with two knives in his hands, which he refused to drop. In seconds, he was shot eight times because the policemen thought he was going to attack them and me. I watched helplessly and in shock as Aaron died.

John guided us through an amazing series of discussions over two years with the KCPD. We never lost sight of the tragedy of our son's death, but we never made the police out to be "bad guys". Police training for encounters with the mentally ill was woefully inadequate at that time. But that soon changed.

Now, an annual award in Aaron's memory has been established by the KCPD (see below). And John Kurtz was our guide and, still is, our hero.