The recorded sequence became central to the murder case that ended with former officer Taquiza Johnson receiving life plus 15 years.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Surveillance cameras outside a Northland Walmart captured an encounter that began with a perceived close pass in a crosswalk, appeared to end and then turned fatal when a former Kansas City police officer returned to confront 71-year-old Ronald Barnett with a gun.
That short sequence eventually became central evidence against Taquiza Johnson, 49, who was sentenced Sept. 14 to life in prison for second-degree murder and another 15 years for armed criminal action. Circuit Judge Myles Perry ordered the firearm sentence to run consecutively, adopting the punishment recommended by a Platte County jury after a five-day trial in June. The sentencing brought a legal conclusion to a case in which video allowed investigators, jurors and the court to examine not merely the final gunshot but the decisions and movements that separated an ordinary parking-lot disagreement from a homicide.
The encounter happened Aug. 21, 2024, in daylight outside the Walmart on North Boardwalk Avenue. Johnson was leaving the store and walking through a crosswalk when he believed Barnett’s vehicle had come too close to him, prosecutors said. The men exchanged words. Barnett reversed, stopped and got out of his vehicle, according to accounts of the surveillance footage and charging records. Johnson walked toward him, and the two spoke for roughly 20 seconds before separating. At that point, the argument had not become a physical fight and neither man had been shot. Both returned toward their vehicles, creating what would become a significant break in the chronology.
Barnett then drove to an accessible parking space and got out. Johnson, meanwhile, entered his own vehicle. Instead of simply leaving the location, prosecutors said, Johnson drove toward the area where Barnett had parked and stopped in the driving lane directly behind Barnett’s SUV about a minute after the first confrontation. Surveillance footage showed Johnson getting out of his vehicle with a gun concealed behind his back. He approached Barnett, and another verbal exchange followed. Prosecutors said Johnson fired one shot into Barnett’s abdomen. Barnett fell, and Johnson returned to his vehicle and drove from the Walmart.
The compressed timeline mattered because Johnson later said he had acted out of fear generated by the earlier confrontation. According to prosecutors, he testified that Barnett had threatened his life and used racial slurs. Yet the video showed that the first argument had ended before Johnson drove toward Barnett for the second encounter. Johnson also acknowledged while testifying that Barnett was not armed and that he saw no weapon in Barnett’s hand. Perry determined that the evidence did not support giving the jury a self-defense instruction. Jurors then convicted Johnson of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
The shooting itself generated an immediate police response. Kansas City officers were sent to the Walmart shortly after 4:15 p.m. and found Barnett seriously wounded in the parking lot. Paramedics attempted to help him and transported him to North Kansas City Hospital, where he died a short time later. Police interviewed witnesses, gathered physical evidence and reviewed the store’s surveillance system. Investigators were able to identify the suspect vehicle, and information about it was relayed to other officers in the area.
Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers located Johnson at a nearby apartment complex within minutes of the vehicle information being broadcast, according to reports based on court records. Investigators said he appeared to have changed clothing after leaving the scene. A firearm was recovered during the investigation. Earlier charging records also described evidence from the parking lot and the vehicles that investigators used as they developed the criminal case. What initially reached officers as a disturbance and shooting outside a major retailer had quickly become a homicide investigation with a suspect in custody and a substantial amount of recorded evidence.
Johnson’s former profession added another dimension. He had served with the Kansas City Police Department for about a decade and left in 2014, long before Barnett’s death. He was a private citizen at the time of the shooting. Prosecutors said at trial that Johnson used a weapon that had been his duty gun when he was an officer. His prior badge did not give him any law-enforcement authority during the Walmart confrontation, and the criminal case was brought against him as an individual accused of unlawfully using deadly force.
The charges evolved as prosecutors prepared the case. Johnson was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action the day after the shooting and entered a not-guilty plea. In February 2025, prosecutors upgraded the homicide allegation to first-degree murder. At the 2026 trial, however, the jury convicted him of second-degree murder rather than first degree. The jurors recommended a life term for murder and 15 years for the armed criminal action conviction. Missouri law required the second punishment to run after the murder sentence, and Perry imposed those recommendations at the September sentencing hearing.
The surveillance sequence also became a way for Barnett’s family to understand the final minutes of a life they described in much broader terms. Barnett’s obituary said he was born in 1953 and was a father of four, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of 16. He enjoyed bowling, trains and Halloween and participated in a bowling league at Gladstone Bowl. His daughter, Elizabeth Moon, told KCTV after his death that he had lived with her family for more than a decade. She said he had undergone treatment for kidney cancer and had recently received favorable news about his health.
Family members were present again when punishment was decided. The Platte County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said Barnett’s daughter and granddaughter addressed the court in victim-impact statements and asked Perry to follow the jury’s recommendation. Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said the killing was especially difficult to comprehend because it happened in a busy retail parking lot during the day. He said jurors had made their view of the crime clear when they recommended life imprisonment.
The surveillance evidence did not record every word spoken between the two men, and Johnson’s testimony supplied his version of what had been said during the encounters. But the cameras did establish the movement of the vehicles and people through the parking lot: an initial encounter, separation, Barnett parking elsewhere, Johnson driving back toward him, Johnson approaching with a concealed gun, the shooting and Johnson’s departure. That chronology allowed the case to be assessed against conduct visible on video rather than relying solely on competing recollections of the argument.
More than two years after the camera system recorded those final moments, the criminal case has reached sentencing. Johnson is serving a life term for Barnett’s murder with a consecutive 15-year sentence for armed criminal action. Barnett’s daughter has also filed a separate wrongful-death lawsuit, leaving a civil case distinct from the prosecution that ended with Johnson’s conviction and prison sentence.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.