Man pulled into Walmart and was dying 2 minutes later after random confrontation
Inset left: Taquiza Johnson (Platte County Detention Center). Inset right: Ronald Barnett (Obituary). Background: A Walmart in Kansas City, Mo. (Google Maps).
A former officer with the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) is facing life in prison after shooting and killing a septuagenarian man outside a Walmart.
Last week, Taquiza Johnson, 49, was found guilty by a jury in Platte County, Missouri, on one count of second-degree murder and armed criminal action over the death of 71-year-old Ronald Barnett in August 2024.
The jury that returned the verdict also suggested a life sentence. Though the judge is not necessarily bound by that recommendation, the jury's suggestion is likely to be given substantial weight.
Sign up for the Law&Crime Daily Newsletter for more breaking news and updatesNow, the victim's family says it is "pleased" with the jury opting for the greatest possible sentence under Show-Me State law, according to a report by The Kansas City Star.
The family's elation with the prospective punishment, however, reportedly came as the silver lining to the general "shock" that the verdict was relatively favorable to the defendant. Johnson also faced a first-degree murder charge, and the victim's daughter told the local paper that the family had expected a conviction on that more serious count.
The underlying incident occurred on Aug. 21, 2024, in the parking lot of the Walmart near the Shops at Boardwalk shopping mall located at Northwest Barry Road and North Boardwalk Avenue.
Surveillance camera footage showed the defendant leaving the big-box store and going through the crosswalk where Barnett was driving before Johnson extended his arm toward the vehicle, according to court documents obtained by Kansas City-based Fox affiliate WDAF.
In the footage, Barnett then reverses, stops, and gets out of his vehicle. Then, Johnson is seen walking over to the victim. The footage then shows the two men interacting for roughly 20 seconds before both men return to their respective vehicles.
After that, Barnett is seen parking and getting out of his vehicle and walking toward the Walmart entrance. Meanwhile, the footage shows Johnson driving toward the victim, getting out of his vehicle, walking toward Barnett, then shooting the man once before fleeing the scene.
The entire incident occurred in less than two minutes, according to the charging documents. After the shooting, Barnett was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Within 10 minutes, Missouri Highway Patrol troopers found Johnson's vehicle at a nearby apartment complex and arrested him after he had allegedly changed his clothes, authorities said.
At the time of the shooting, the defendant was not a member of law enforcement. He worked for the KCPD between 2004 and 2014.
Barnett is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and five siblings, according to his obituary.
During the lengthy legal process, the victim's family learned Barnett faced long wait times in the aftermath of the initial 911 call and was transferred to various emergency response teams, the Star reported.
"That's just crazy to me and our family," Barnett's daughter told the paper. "But outside of that, I think we're pleased with what the jury did eventually come back with, with life in prison."
During the trial, Johnson's defense mounted a failed self-defense argument, claiming the shooter was only defending himself because the victim had previously threatened him during their brief parking lot interaction. On the witness stand, however, Johnson admitted Barnett was not armed and that he did not see a weapon of any kind.
"The instruction on self-defense in Missouri is clear," Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said in a press release. "Verbal threats are not enough. Name-calling is not enough. A person claiming self-defense must establish that the perceived aggressor possessed, exhibited, or threatened to use a weapon readily capable of lethal force. Deadly force is not justified in response to fear of being grabbed or even punched. The old axiom is true — you cannot bring a gun to a fist-fight."
Johnson is slated to be formally sentenced on Sept. 14.
Tags: 2nd Degree Murderconvictedgun violenceMissouriFollow Law&Crime:
Rescuer Finds A Plastic Backpack Sitting In The Sun — And It Isn't Empty
Rescuer Finds A Plastic Backpack Sitting In The Sun — And It Isn't Empty
It was the hottest day of the year.
By Elizabeth Claire AlbertsPublished on July 1, 2026 at 4:49 PMLate one afternoon in May, the rescue team at Celia Hammond Animal Trust in the UK was suddenly flooded with calls and messages. People passing through a housing estate in East London had spotted a domed plastic backpack tucked away off the road.
It was an unexpectedly hot day — far too hot to be outside, let alone be trapped inside a plastic cat carrier. There was no way of knowing how long the carrier had sat hidden from view. But for the three little lives inside, it was clear that every minute mattered.
Amanda Stevens, a volunteer rescue worker for Celia Hammond Animal Trust, dropped everything and rushed to help.
“This was obviously an emergency because they would have died from the heat in very little time,” Stevens told The Dodo. “So it was just a case of getting there as quickly as I could.”
When Stevens arrived, she could immediately tell the kittens were struggling: “They were all squashed in together, and the heat was coming through this plastic dome … and it was an absolute heatwave,” Stevens said. “They were in a really bad way.”
Stevens opened the carrier just enough to give them air, while making sure the kittens didn’t escape.
Then Stevens rushed them into her air-conditioned car and drove them to the veterinary clinic run by Celia Hammond Animal Trust.
Once they arrived, the veterinary team worked quickly to cool the kittens down and treat their heat exhaustion.
Amazingly, all three kittens — who were later revealed to be boys — made a full recovery. The rescue group named them Napoleon, Prince and Tom.
“These three boys are around three months old, full of character, and completely devoted to one another,” the rescue group wrote in a Facebook post following their rescue. “They eat together, sleep together, play together and seek comfort in one another's company.”
After everything they’ve been through, their rescuers knew the kittens needed to find a home together.
“We wanted them to go as a trio because they're very bonded and they really love each other,” Stevens said. “It's difficult to find homes for trios, but we have managed to find one.”
For Stevens, the most rewarding part of the rescue was knowing she’d arrived in time.
“I was just pleased that I wasn't too far away and I was able to get there straightaway, because they wouldn't have survived very much longer,” she said. “But I sorted it out and they were fine.”
SCOTUS ruling ‘major setback’ to 2026 Dems, could wipe out Platner and Talarico’s midterm edge
SCOTUS ruling 'major setback' to 2026 Dems, could wipe out Platner and Talarico's midterm edge- US News
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SCOTUS ruling ‘major setback’ to 2026 Dems, could wipe out Platner and Talarico’s midterm edge
By Josh Christenson Published July 1, 2026, 5:15 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleWASHINGTON — GOP contenders who were lagging behind their Democratic rivals in campaign fundraising are poised to see a cash infusion thanks to a Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that will allow Republicans to buy up airspace at discounted rates in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms.
The Supreme Court’s decision allowing coordinated spending between political parties and candidates delivered a blow to Democrats, members of both parties agreed, as the GOP’s best outcome would be flipping three Senate seats and winning more than a dozen House seats to increase control of Congress.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is a major setback for the Democrats’ viral fundraisers in states like Texas and Maine,” Sean Cooksey, managing director at BGR Group and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told The Post.
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“What would have been a significant financial advantage over their Republican opponents will be neutralized by the RNC’s war chest and its new ability to coordinate ads with candidates,” added Cooksey, who most recently served as counsel to Vice President JD Vance.
Senate Republicans are hoping to regain control of Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia, while retaining seats in Iowa, Alaska, Ohio, North Carolina and Maine. The House GOP’s main campaign arm is also eyeing around three dozen vulnerable Dem seats.
“The map is much smaller this go around than it has been in past midterms,” a Republican National Committee official said. “That makes our money go a lot further than it has in past midterms.”
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The Republican National Committee already boasts a whopping $125 million campaign war chest, compared with the Democratic National Committee’s more than $14 million — on top of another $18 million in debt.
And the high court’s ruling will let the RNC, in addition to the GOP’s top two congressional campaign committees, make good use of that cash on hand for campaign advertising in contests where Democrats had been betting on candidates with large national profiles, according to party insiders.
Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner, for instance, has far surpassed incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins’s fundraising, with more than $16 million raised and $2 million cash on hand. Collins recorded just a little more than $310,000 cash on hand in her latest quarterly filing.
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In Texas, Senate Democratic hopeful James Talarico has raised more than $40 million and recorded nearly $10 million cash on hand in his race against state attorney general Ken Paxton, who has just over $2 million in his campaign war chest and has raised more than $7.5 million, per the latest campaign finance filings.
“We’re still in primary season,” the RNC official noted. “Seeing who our opponents are gonna be matters a lot.”
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“Even for a lot of the talk recently following New York, Colorado,” the official added, referencing primary races where left-wing challengers beat Democratic incumbents, “the crazy rhetoric and ideas … despite all that, obviously, what they’re selling is very exciting to a portion of their base.”
For that reason, Democrats’ favored candidates have run higher fundraising figures for their committees, while their party’s committees are being beaten in contributions by the GOP’s major political committees.
Typically, Democrats have been able to use the fundraising advantage from individual candidates to buy ads at cheaper rates, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) noted in a Tuesday memo, but that rate, known as the Lowest Unit Charge, will now be available to party committees.
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Another GOP operative added that the coordinated spending will mean that committees no longer will be making public announcements of cash reservations, giving the party a tactical edge in where they decide to send funding.
“The NRSC can spend without limit in direct coordination with all Senate campaigns on all expenditures,” the memo stated.
“Historically, most NRSC advertising was produced and distributed independently — it could not be informed by strategic conversations with the campaign about message, targeting, timing, or creative. Those restrictions are now gone.”
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In April, for instance, Senate Republicans’ top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, announced $236 million in ad reservations for incumbents running in Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska as well as challengers to Dem incumbents in New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan.
Previously, the FEC capped spending to Senate candidates’ campaigns at around $4 million and House campaigns at around $65,000.
DNC chair Ken Martin and other party committee leaders — including DSCC Chairwoman and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) as well as DCCC Chairwoman and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) — slammed the decision as “a win for billionaire donors and special interests who want more influence over the GOP agenda and an invitation for corruption.”
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Democratic sources added that the court win wouldn’t have been as much of a blow had the DNC been keeping up with the RNC’s fundraising totals since the 2024 election.
“You’d be really hard pressed to make the case for how they can be a really effective outfit for 2026,” the RNC official also said.
The Supreme Court ruling in NRSC v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) came after the main campaign arm for the Senate GOP filed a challenge to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, alleging it violated the First Amendment by capping coordinated spending, which is mainly used on campaign advertising.
It’s considered the biggest decision on US campaign finance since the 2010 Citizens United ruling that allowed corporations to donate without limits to super PACs.
Filed under- democratic national committee
- fundraising
- Graham Platner
- midterm elections 2026
- republican national committee
- supreme court
- 7/1/26
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