KC cops said her husband died in crash. They never told her about police chase

Lee’s Summit resident Diahna Carroll was overcome with shock and disbelief when a Kansas City police officer came to her door and said her husband of 36 years had been killed in a car crash. It was Jan. 2, 2024, and the officer told her, “‘This morning, Alphonso Carroll was killed,’ and I just lost it,” Carroll, 64, recalled in an August interview with The Star. “I couldn’t believe it. I said this is a nightmare. It’s not true.”

The Kansas City Police Department told Carroll her husband, Alphonso, was killed in a car crash earlier that morning, Carroll said. But they never told her — and they still deny — that he was killed as an innocent bystander to a high-speed police chase. She said she didn’t learn about the police chase until days later, when her daughter started receiving messages on social media from people who were on the highway and witnessed the crash. “My oldest daughter got online on the internet, and everybody was talking about it,” Carroll said.

Her daughter eventually paid $200 to view traffic video footage, and she saw the moments before her stepfather, whom the family lovingly called “Duke,” was hit. “She told me, ‘Mom, Dad didn’t have a chance,’” Carroll recalled. Now, more than two years later, Carroll has settled with the department but continues to ask that they change their pursuit policies to avoid more innocent deaths like that of her husband. And she still would like for them to tell the truth about what happened.

Kansas City police chase ends in deadly crash Alphonso Carroll, 60, was on his way to work as a butcher at Price Chopper about 4:30 a.m. when he was struck head-on by a Dodge Challenger going the wrong way — south in the northbound lanes — on Interstate 435 in Claycomo, near Missouri Highway 210 just outside Kansas City. The Challenger was driven by 29-year-old Ollie L. Coldiron, who was fleeing police after allegedly robbing four convenience stores that morning. In a police report obtained by The Star through a public records request, Officer S.E. Davis of the Kansas City Police Department wrote that “Officers did not follow the Challenger once it entered the wrong way onto the highway, and there were no police vehicles directly behind it at the time of the collision.” However — as The Star reported at the time — traffic camera video shows law enforcement vehicles with their emergency lights on as they followed Coldiron by driving in the correct — southbound — lanes of travel, even after Kansas City police said they ended the chase.

The week of the crash, Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, wrote in an email to The Star that “the primary pursuing officer terminated/disregarded himself from the pursuit, by continuing to travel in the correct lanes of the highway, ultimately losing sight of the driver.” Under the Kansas City Police Department’s pursuit policy, officers are permitted to chase parallel in the correct direction on a highway. When a chase is terminated, officers are required to deactivate their lights and sirens, resume a safe speed, and comply with traffic laws. Gonzalez declined to disclose what time the chase began or was disregarded, but went on to say that “it is not uncommon for officers to move into the area with lights and sirens in order to assist with the apprehension of a violent and dangerous subject.” Reached for comment on this story in 2025, Gonzalez denied again that officers were chasing Coldiron. “Camera footage does NOT show any officers behind Coldiron after he entered the highway going the wrong direction,” Gonzalez wrote in an email.

Traffic video captures Carroll’s final moments The Carroll family said people watching the news recognized Alphonso’s truck and quickly reached out through social media. They also heard from eyewitnesses who saw the crash on the highway. Diahna Carroll’s daughter, Lavera Evans, and her cousin paid $200 for traffic camera footage from a Missouri Department of Transportation feed to watch the crash themselves. A department spokesperson said the footage came from a third party. Evans said what she saw frightened her. “I’m sure, he (Alphonso) said, “My God, Jesus,” because it wasn’t nothing else he could say before the car hit him and was right in his lap,” Evans said. “Wasn’t nothing he could do.”

Evans said that, in the footage, one officer stops his vehicle when Coldiron drives onto the wrong side of traffic. But the rest continue. “The rest of them got up on the highway, on the right way, going down the highway, why would y’all do that?” Evans questioned. According to police reports, Coldiron was driving 115 mph. “They cut off their sirens, but their lights were still on; that means he (Coldiron) saw them [the police] coming just like everybody else,” Evans said. “It’s a messed up situation, and nobody can tell me different.” A Kansas City Police Department report on the crash provided to Diahna Carroll makes no mention of the fact that the driver who killed Alphonso Carroll was being pursued by police. A Kansas City Police Department report on the crash provided to Diahna Carroll makes no mention of the fact that the driver who killed Alphonso Carroll was being pursued by police. Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com Police chases have been a public safety concern in the Kansas City area for years. A 2024 investigation by The Star found that, in 2022, more than 1,200 police chases took place in the Kansas City metro, resulting in over 150 crashes and 51 injuries. For years, experts have said that dangerous crashes are a predictable outcome of police chases. Data from police chases show that 97% of suspects slow down within 90 seconds if police stop chasing them.

Carroll family settles with KCPD As the Carroll family pieced together information, they considered filing a lawsuit against the department for wrongdoing. But no lawyer would take their case. “My case wasn’t strong enough, according to many lawyers I talked to; there was nothing I could do,” Carroll said. So Carroll wrote a letter to the department describing what she had lost in the accident: a man, she said, who was her life partner, her two-step dance partner, and a provider for their blended family. Outside of his family and work, Alphonso Carroll enjoyed playing the piano, fishing, swimming, and almost anything involving nature, according to his family. “My husband was an innocent person on his way to work,” Carroll said. “Losing Alphonso, I lost a part of me. Me and that man had an awesome marriage, an awesome union for 36 years. And I lose him in the blink of an eye like that.”

The department responded to the letter, and she met with police officials who offered her $12,500. Initially, she declined the money. But after a conversation with loved ones, she recognized the money would help pay for her husband’s funeral and other house expenses. “I told them, ‘If you offer me $1 million or $1 billion and Alphonso like he was the day before he was killed, I’d take my husband every time,’” Carroll said. In exchange for the money, the department required Carroll to sign a settlement agreement and a document that releases the City of Kansas City, Missouri, the chief of the Kansas City Police Department, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, and its members at the time, Madeline Romious, Dawn Cramer, Thomas Whitaker, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, as individuals and collectively of any liability claims, actions, proceedings, or damages. Under the agreement, it’s understood and agreed that the police board and the city “deny any liability to Carroll.”

Carroll’s settlement with the department is one of many from 2025. An August 2025 investigation by The Star found that taxpayers had paid more than $6 million by the first half of the year to resolve lawsuits against KCPD. The department and the city were also set to pay an additional $24 million in 2025, with other cases still pending. Carroll’s agreement was signed on April 3, 2025. In her grief, Carroll said she’s pushing for the department to change its policies so police car pursuits aren’t necessary at all. “The police department never opted to use a helicopter to stop the rubber, or unmanned police cars, or those spikes,” she said. “I would love to get the chase policies changed so no one else has to experience this like we did.”

What KCPD knew about the suspect Police records show Coldiron was suspected of robbing gas stations for more than 24 hours before he was pursued by police and crashed. The first robbery was reported at a 7-Eleven at 4:10 a.m. on Jan. 1 in Independence. At the time, police said the only information given was that it was a white man driving a black Dodge Challenger. That night, around 11 p.m., Coldiron allegedly robbed yet another gas station, a Conoco in Raytown. Diahna Carroll holds a copy of the KCPD’s crash report, which has no mention of a police pursuit in the Jan. 2, 2024, crash that claimed the life of her husband, Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, 60. Carroll spoke at her home on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Lee’s Summit. Diahna Carroll holds a copy of the KCPD’s crash report, which has no mention of a police pursuit in the Jan. 2, 2024, crash that claimed the life of her husband, Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, 60.

The next morning, the armed robberies continued. Coldiron was suspected of robbing five more gas stations in the Kansas City area. Police records say on Jan. 2, the first call came in around 2:30 a.m. at a Shell gas station where Coldiron was wearing a gray hoodie with blue jeans and a mask over his face. He allegedly stole $365 after he pointed a gun at the store clerk and fired one shot at the liquor cabinet. The store clerk opened the cash drawer, and Coldiron left with the money. Police responded to another call at 4:03 a.m. from a Pilot gas station along Northeast Birmingham Road in Claycomo. Coldiron entered the gas station and told the worker, “register” then shot one time into the shelves behind the counter. The worker then opened the register, which had $692, according to police records. After being yelled at by Coldiron, the worker then opened the second cash register, which had $424, and gave both to Coldiron.

Minutes later, Coldiron was fleeing police at 115 mph and struck Alphonso Carroll, killing both drivers. In their findings, police described the collision as “catastrophic and violent” and said the energy from the crash was “extremely massive,” causing Alphonso Carroll’s car to go airborne over a metal guard rail. Diahna Carroll said that by not finding and arresting Coldiron sooner, the department was negligent, and their inaction led to her husband’s death. “My husband was murdered because they (police) failed at doing their jobs,” Carroll said. Missouri law on police chases Regarding the police conduct of the pursuit,

Kansas City attorney John Picerno, who has represented families suing the department, said police chase cases are difficult to win because the laws are written in a way that protects police departments. “Car chases are a different thing entirely, and the law in Missouri is not favorable to plaintiffs in those types of lawsuits,” Picerno said in a phone interview. “Unfortunately, the laws need to be changed in order for plaintiffs to be able to pursue and win a claim under those circumstances.” Attorney John Picerno has represented families suing the Kansas City Police Department. He said police chase cases are difficult to win because the laws are written in a way that protects police departments. Attorney John Picerno has represented families suing the Kansas City Police Department. He said police chase cases are difficult to win because the laws are written in a way that protects police departments.

Missouri law allows police departments to create their own standards for vehicular pursuits, as long as they follow the minimum requirements, which include having supervisory control, designating the primary pursuit vehicle, and coordinating with other jurisdictions. Under KCPD policy, pursuits against the flow of traffic on a divided highway are only allowed if a supervisor or commander approves and the suspect is fleeing to avoid a felony pursuit. “Members will not initiate a vehicle pursuit for a serious traffic violation, DUI, or stolen auto unless the suspect vehicle or occupant(s) has been involved in a dangerous felony, or where the suspect vehicle or occupant(s) presents a clear and immediate danger to the safety of others,” the policy reads. Diahna Carroll speaks of the profound loss when her husband, Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, was killed on Jan. 2, 2024. A robbery suspect fleeing police hit his vehicle while driving the wrong way on Interstate 435. Carroll spoke of her loss from her home in Lee’s Summit on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. Diahna Carroll speaks of the profound loss when her husband, Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, was killed on Jan. 2, 2024.

Officers must also weigh factors like the weather, the speed of the pursuit, and roadway conditions, among others, to determine when police should initiate, continue, or terminate a pursuit. Officers are also expected to deactivate their lights and sirens, resume a safe speed, and comply with traffic laws, according to department policy. Gonzalez said in this pursuit, officers followed department policy, and that the department is “continuously reviewing KCPD policies and procedures.” Diahna Carroll and her husband, Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, center, are seen in this family photo on display at their home on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Lee’s Summit.

But the Carroll family said the department isn’t moving quickly enough to improve its policies. They also said that they have not heard anything from police officials since their first meeting. “We want laws changed,” Evans said. “We want them to stop chasing. Can y’all stop chasing people, stop killing people? This is unnecessary.” When asked about the family’s push for reform, Gonzalez pointed to a statement by fellow police spokesperson Capt. Jake Becchina. “We recognize this is a traumatic situation for all involved,” Gonzalez wrote. “We appreciate that the family has many questions; our officers know all of those things and many more are considerations in any pursuit.” Yet, Carroll said she wants to see change immediately and believes more needs to be done. “He got killed on the very road that he, I, and many other people have paid too many taxes on from them not doing their job,” Carroll said.

I lost part of me,” said Carroll, who added that the couple had “an awesome marriage, and an awesome union.” Alphonso “Duke” Carroll, was killed on Jan. 2, 2024, when a robbery suspect fleeing police hit his vehicle while driving the wrong way on Interstate 435.

Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com