On the evening of July 5, 2005, in the Meacham Park neighborhood of Kirkwood, Missouri, Sergeant William Leo McEntee responded to a routine disturbance call regarding fireworks being set off near an apartment complex. The 43-year-old White male officer, a twenty-year veteran of the force and a father of three, arrived at the scene on Alsobrook Street and began speaking with a young child while seated in his patrol vehicle.
Unbeknownst to the sergeant, a 19-year-old named Kevin Johnson was nearby and watching the officer with intense hostility, fueling a tragic sequence of events that would shake the community.
earlier that same day, Johnson’s younger brother, Joseph 'Bam Bam' Long, had collapsed from a congenital heart defect at a residence next door to where Johnson lived. Police officers, including McEntee, had responded to the medical emergency. Johnson believed that the police had prevented his mother from entering the house to aid his dying brother and that they had not done enough to save the boy's life. Consumed by grief and a misplaced desire for retribution, Johnson approached McEntee’s patrol car from the passenger side, crouching down to avoid detection before opening fire with a handgun.
Struck by the initial volley of bullets, Sergeant McEntee attempted to escape, but his vehicle traveled only a short distance before crashing into a tree and coming to a halt. As the wounded officer struggled to exit his crushed cruiser, Johnson returned to the scene. Witnesses reported that Johnson approached the incapacitated sergeant and fired additional shots, fatally wounding him. The assailant then took the officer's service weapon and fled the area, sparking a massive manhunt across the region as law enforcement agencies mobilized to find the killer.
For three days, Johnson evaded capture, but investigators eventually received a tip that led them to an apartment complex in St. Louis County. He was apprehended and taken into custody without further violence. The legal proceedings that followed were lengthy and contentious. Johnson's first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked on the charges. However, during a second trial in 2007, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The prosecution argued that the killing was a deliberate execution, while the defense highlighted Johnson's emotional state following his brother's death.
The jury ultimately recommended the death penalty, and the judge sentenced Johnson accordingly. Over the next decade and a half, Johnson’s legal team filed numerous appeals, arguing various points of law including claims of racial bias in the prosecution's handling of the case. Despite these efforts and a request for clemency, the courts upheld the conviction and sentence. On November 29, 2022, Kevin Johnson was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre, finally concluding the legal chapter of the case nearly eighteen years after the death of Sergeant McEntee.
