Dunk Law Firm is serving as co-counsel for the parents of Saveion McConnell, a 19-year-old resident of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, who was fatally shot by a Lafayette County sheriff’s deputy on May 1, 2026. On October 5, attorneys Ben Crump and Romanucci & Blandin released two excerpts of body-camera video and outlined the family’s concerns about the deputy’s use of force.
The release follows a September 14 decision by Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Robert W. Russell not to bring criminal charges against Deputy Kenneth Lewie. McConnell’s family disagrees with that decision. The legal team’s investigation remains ongoing as it seeks accountability through the civil justice system.
Body-camera video excerpts
These videos concern a fatal police shooting. The second excerpt depicts the shooting. Nothing plays automatically; each link opens YouTube in a new tab.
Body-camera excerpt 1: The search for Saveion
The legal team identifies this excerpt as footage recorded while officers were searching for McConnell. It includes an officer’s comment about searching for a Black teenager at night.
Watch excerpt 1 on YouTube ↗Body-camera excerpt 2: The encounter and shooting
The legal team identifies this excerpt as the continuous recording from the initial encounter through the fatal shooting. This video depicts the shooting.
Watch excerpt 2 on YouTube ↗Dunk Law Firm’s role on the legal team
Dunk Law Firm
Dunk Law Firm is part of the team representing McConnell’s parents, Michelle Washington and Ronnell McConnell. The October 5 release identifies the firm as co-counsel alongside Ben Crump and Romanucci & Blandin attorneys Joshua M. Levin, Benjamin A. Berkman, and Colton M. Johnson Taylor.
Led by founding attorney Orville Dunk, the firm represents people and families in personal injury and wrongful death matters. Its role in this case is part of the family’s effort to obtain answers and pursue accountability for Saveion’s death.
What the legal team says the recording shows
According to the October 5 release, the footage was recorded by Odessa Police Department Officer Nathan Holmberg and is the only known body-worn camera recording of the shooting. The attorneys say Lewie fired nine times, including five shots after McConnell had fallen to the ground. The release reports that an autopsy found eight gunshot wounds.
The legal team says McConnell initially followed commands during an encounter with Holmberg and Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Hardwick, then ran as Holmberg moved to handcuff him. The attorneys state that Lewie’s patrol car struck McConnell before the shooting.
In the legal team’s account, McConnell had stopped running when Lewie confronted him at gunpoint and ordered him to the ground. Holmberg can be heard announcing his Taser before Lewie fired. The attorneys argue that McConnell’s movement toward his waist appeared consistent with trying to pull up his pants, and that the circumstances did not justify deadly force.
Those descriptions and conclusions are the legal team’s account of the evidence, not findings by a court. Lewie told investigators that the vehicle contact was unintentional, according to the prosecutor’s memo as described in the release; the family’s attorneys dispute that explanation.
The events leading to the search
McConnell was a 2025 graduate of Lee’s Summit North High School. Officers were searching for him after a handgun discharged inside a car carrying him and friends, injuring the driver.
The release states that the prosecutor’s memo did not determine that McConnell fired the gun and concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone in connection with that discharge. The legal team also states that McConnell was unarmed when he was shot, and that the handgun described in the memo was recovered from the car rather than from him.
The civil investigation continues
A decision not to file criminal charges does not resolve every question that may arise in a civil proceeding. Criminal and civil matters use different legal standards and burdens of proof. The family’s attorneys contend that the force used against McConnell was excessive and are continuing to investigate the circumstances of his death.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Romanucci & Blandin for a confidential conversation at 312-458-1000 or intakes@rblaw.net, as requested in the October 5 release. Media inquiries to Dunk Law Firm may be directed to the contact listed above.
About Dunk Law Firm
Dunk Law Firm represents plaintiffs in personal injury and wrongful death matters. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the firm has offices in Memphis, St. Louis, and Milwaukee and handles matters nationwide, subject to the requirements of each case and jurisdiction.
Learn more about the firm’s wrongful death practice or contact Dunk Law Firm. No outcome in this matter is promised.
Source: Romanucci & Blandin’s October 5, 2026 release. This Dunk Law Firm update is written from that release; interpretations of the footage are attributed to the family’s legal team.