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Picerno argued Good's actions in the video appeared evasive rather than threatening."When the car starts to back up, that should be the first indication to law enforcement that, A, she's not intent on harming us and, B, she's about getting ready to flee,"

Picerno pointed to a specific detail in the video he wants people to notice.“I don’t think the officer was justified in using lethal force,” Picerno said. “It backs up, first of all. Typically, you wouldn’t associate backing up with an aggressive maneuver to run into some officers who were in front of her.”

Picerno said such cases are evaluated under long-established legal standards governing when officers may use deadly force. “The law on this is very clear,” Picerno said. “The Supreme Court has carved out specific incidences when officers are allowed to shoot into automobiles and fleeing felons or to stop a perceived threat of danger of imminent violence or to protect themselves, and I don’t see any of those factors present in the video that I watched.”

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We asked defense attorney John Picerno, not party to the case, about the legal distinction. He said it comes down to the fact Lester didn’t live long enough to be sentenced.

“Certainly, in this case, from what I do know about it, I anticipate that self defense in some form is going to be raised by one or more of the defendants,” John Picerno, a longtime Kansas City criminal defense attorney, said during a recent interview with The Star.

John Picerno is a local criminal defense attorney. He’s not associated with the case but said even before this moment people were talking about Britt Reid’s original sentencing feeling light. “This is a very unusual case. I can’t point you to any other case where this was an outcome,” Picerno said.

She took exception to KCPD’s decision to allow one of DeValkenaere’s former supervisors — since-retired Sgt. Richard Sharp, who maintained a close relationship with DeValkenaere — to oversee the investigation. Picerno called such an arrangement “extremely troubling.” He added, “There's an inherent conflict of interest there. It's the main reason why we now have the Missouri State Highway Patrol conduct all the investigations in any kind of an officer-involved incident.”

A former Kansas City police officer has been booked into jail Tuesday after an appeals court upheld his conviction in the deadly shooting of a Black man.