UMKC students voiced outrage and planned to protest the decision to hire retired Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department (KCPD) Captain Daniel Graves, who backed a former detective convicted in the 2019 killing of a Black man.
In 2021, Graves wrote a letter of support for Eric DeValkenaere, a former KCPD detective convicted of killing 26-year-old Cameron Lamb, stating that the prosecution of DeValkenaere was “politically motivated,” that he was not a public safety threat and requesting that the former detective remain out of jail pending his appeal.
“This is not a man who would intentionally hurt someone unprovoked or with malice,” Graves wrote. “Never a man of recklessness, ineptitude or trial.”…