Kent Police chief addresses officer hiring at community meeting

Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla left a group of about 30 people with more questions than answers about why he hired an officer who fatally shot a man in 2022 while working for the Olathe (Kansas) Police Department.

Padilla also attacked the Kent Reporter when he told the audience they shouldn’t believe what they read in the media.

It was a Kent Reporter article about the hiring of Conner Thompson, a former Olathe Police Department officer hired by Kent last fall, that led Gwen Allen-Carston, executive director of the Kent Black Action Commission, to call for a meeting with the chief Tuesday evening, Aug. 12, in the Green River Room at the Kent Commons Community Center.

The city of Olathe last month paid $625,000 to the family of the man killed during a “mental health crisis” to set