LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man who died in a shootout in which he killed a police officer was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and had become increasingly threatening while awaiting trial on burglary and assault charges, according to a prosecutor and a relative of the man who were trying to have him kept in jail.
Phillip Michael Carney, 38, died Sunday after a shootout with Overland Park Officer Mike Mosher, who was gunned down after stopping Carney's vehicle after an apparent hit-and-run in the Kansas City suburb, authorities said. Police haven't said what led to the gun battle or whether Carney was killed by Mosher or killed himself.
Mosher was a nearly 15-year veteran of the police department and was named officer of the year in 2019.
Carney was charged in January with burglaries at a cigar shop in Lawrence, and a Douglas County prosecutor on Friday filed a motion to revoke his bond, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. A relative of Carney wrote a letter to a county judge in February, before his release, saying Carney was a threat to her family.
Carney, a self-employed ballroom dance instructor who lived in Overland Park, also was charged with battery of a law enforcement officer and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer during his arrests in the burglary cases, according to court records.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple on Friday filed a motion to revoke Carney's bond in all four of his pending cases, saying he had a history of "violent and erratic" behavior and convictions for misdemeanor battery, domestic battery and assault. She wrote that Carney was being charged with making a criminal threat after he was heard threatening a victim with violence on April 28, but the motion does not go into detail.
"That the defendant is capable of violence is demonstrated by his own repeated behaviors and is reflected in the criminal charges he is facing," Kemple wrote.
In a letter to the Douglas County Court, a family member said Carney made several threats against her and other family members, including threatening to kill one relative and slashing the tires of family members' vehicles, the Journal-World reported.
"He has upped his game as far as threats go," the letter said. "He needs help for his addictions and we believe he will only get that help if he is in jail. We do not think it is in our best interest for him to be out since his threats get more and more violent."
At a Feb. 13 hearing for the burglary charges, Carney was charged with tampering with his electronic monitoring device from previous cases. He was remanded back to the Douglas County jail on $290,000 case bond but was released Feb. 20 after making bond.
In her letter, Carney's relative said that Carney's dance students bailed him out several times and enabled him to continue his drug and alcohol use.
"These well-meaning friends keep rescuing him from his behavior and he does not stay sober," she wrote.
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