WASHINGTON —KCPD Officer Jim Muhlbauer's name is now on the wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C.
Muhlbauer is one of 24,067 officers on the wall, all of whom died in the line of duty. The engraving was recently finished and dedicated this week.
Muhlbauer, who made the arrest in a notorious quintuple homicide nearly a decade ago, his police dog and a pedestrian were all killed when a driver crashed into the officer's cruiser in February of 2023.
The crash happened as Officer Muhlbauer was on patrol. The driver, later identified as Jerron Lightfoot, 20, of Tonganoxie, Kansas, who struck the cruiser suffered minor injuries and was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison. The crash also killed a pedestrian Jesse Eckes, who was 52, and Muhlbauer's police dog, Champ.
In 2014, Muhlbauer “heroically” arrested Brandon Howell after Howell killed five people in a quiet cul-de-sac when his attempt to steal a classic Jaguar went awry, said Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. Howell, who previously was acquitted in the killings of two Kansas teens, is serving multiple life terms, with no chance of parole, in the quintuple homicide.