Auto store worker charged in strangulation death of alleged shoplifter

An auto parts store employee was arrested by police on Thursday after being accused of strangling a man to death whom he believed was shoplifting.

The incident began on Tuesday at an O’Reilly Auto Parts location in Kansas City, Kansas, on the 4700 block of Parallel Parkway, according to news station KSHB. At approximately 6 p.m. local time, 23-year-old Diamond Steen and another person entered the store and allegedly began shoplifting. The pair were then confronted outside of the shop by various employees, including 39-year-old Carl Ryan Kemppainen.

The confrontation eventually escalated and led to a physical altercation between Kemppainen and Steen, in which the employee was accused of killing the younger man. Police officers arriving on the scene later found the man unresponsive and despite efforts to administer CPR, he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, KSHB reported. Steen’s autopsy concluded that his cause of strangulation, with Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree later disclosing in a press conference that his “airway was completely stopped.”

During the same press conference, Dupree stressed that Steen’s alleged shoplifting prior to the incident would not have an impact on his office’s ability to bring murder charges against Kemppainen.

“Make no mistake, it is law enforcement’s job to do the policing, no one else’s,” Dupree said. “The reasoning by which police were called out were brought to my attention. Part of that is still being investigated. If there was a potential crime that was being alleged, we do know that in this country, you still have to go to the court, and someone’s life cannot be taken.”

Kemppainen was taken into custody by the Kansas City Police Department on Thursday and charged with unintentional but reckless second-degree murder. He was booked at the Wyandotte County Detention Center and later released after posting a bond of $125,000. Dupree noted that at least three other individuals had been involved in the incident and that additional charges for them would be a possibility.

“O’Reilly Auto Parts is deeply disturbed by the events, death, and injuries that occurred at our store in Kansas City, Kansas,” the company said in a statement on Friday. “We are cooperating fully with the police investigation.”

Newsweek reached out to the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department via email for comment.

It is not uncommon for retail locations to bar employees from attempting to stop thefts in order to avoid potentially fatal confrontations. The women’s apparel chain Lululemon has such a rule put in place after a 2011 incident in which Jayna Troxel Murray, an employee at a location in Bethesda, Maryland, was stabbed to death by co-worker Brittany Norwood, whom Murray had found shoplifting.