From [HERE] Topeka police last week denied a request by The Capital-Journal seeking body camera video of the fatal shooting by three Topeka police officers June 24 of Christopher Kelley, 38, whom officers said charged at them with a knife.

Topeka, Kansas is a liberal, white city.

Police legal adviser David Huckabee said the Kansas Open Records Act shields the videos involved from public release because they are personnel records and investigative records, and because their release would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Those arguments lack merit, replied Max Kautsch, a Lawrence attorney and president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government.

Topeka police have an obligation to make the video public to answer questions surrounding Kelly's death, Kautsch said.

"The credibility of the entire local law enforcement apparatus is at stake until it releases the video," he said.

Kelley was a husband, father, cook and friend, and had been a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, said Danielle Twemlow, who helped organize a gathering held July 14 to memorialize him on the south steps of the Kansas Statehouse.

According to the government, police were called about 9 a.m. June 24 to the area of S.E. 4th and Holliday, where Kelley — a Black man had reportedly trespassed on BNSF Railroad property, threatened a BNSF employee with a knife, then began cutting himself with the knife before police arrived, said Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay.

He said officers set up a perimeter and tried to negotiate for roughly an hour, shooting Kelley with "bean bag" rounds and foam/rubber projectiles, though he disobeyed their commands and continued to occasionally cut himself with the knife.

About 10 a.m., Kelley screamed and charged with the knife extended over his head at the officers, who fatally shot him, Kagay said.

An autopsy showed Kelley had methamphetamine and marijuana in his system, he said.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation investigated circumstances of Kelley's death, then forwarded a report to Kagay's office.

Kagay announced Sept. 23 that he had concluded that the officers acted justifiably and would not be subject to criminal prosecution. Their names have not been made public.

Police say video constitutes personnel records

The Capital-Journal on Sept. 23 submitted a request to Topeka's city government seeking police body camera video of the incident in which Kelley died.

In his response Wednesday to The Capital-Journal's request, Huckabee said it was being refused under a section of the Kansas Open Records Act that enables agencies to "deny the release of any materials considered as personnel records, performance ratings or individually identifiable records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment."

Kautsch said the police department would have a hard time proving the video of Kelley's shooting is a personnel record. 

He said the Kansas Atttorney General's Office in 1999 ruled "the personnel exception is designed to protect information that is normally kept in personnel records files, such as documentation of discipline, references and resumes, ADA and FMLA issues, as well as specific personal information such as home address and social security number."