Left inset: Shanetta Bossell (Clay County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Paramedic Graham Hoffman (City of Kansas City, Mo., Fire Department/Facebook). Background: The area near Missouri 152 Highway and North Oak Trafficway where Graham Hoffman was allegedly attacked by Shanetta Bossell (KSHB/YouTube).
A Missouri woman has landed behind bars twice in the span of a week for two different alleged attacks on law enforcement and first responders, including the fatal stabbing of a paramedic who tried giving her medical attention and a police officer who nearly had “a chunk of his arm” bitten off by the suspect, according to prosecutors.
Shanetta Bossell, 39, is charged in Clay County Court with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, third-degree assault and resisting arrest in connection to the paramedic’s slaying and another bite attack on a different cop who tried to take her into custody early Sunday morning, according to the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office. She’s also facing felony assault and resisting arrest charges for allegedly biting an off-duty officer who says he caught her trying to break into vehicles on April 23.
Prosecutor Zachary Thompson held a press conference hours after Graham Hoffman — a Kansas City Fire Department paramedic firefighter — was allegedly murdered by Bossell and, he revealed how she had been arrested just five days earlier for assaulting the off-duty cop.
“When we filed the initial charge and requested a warrant and it was granted, the judge in that case — as in all criminal cases — reviewed the circumstances, determined the appropriate bond and in that case the bond was set at $10,000 and the defendant posted that bond,” Thompson explained on why Bossell was free, according to Local ABC affiliate KMBC, which broadcast Thompson’s presser.
“A quick review didn’t show any convictions for these types of offenses,” Thompson said about Bossell’s criminal history.
On Sunday, police officers in Kansas City, Missouri, responded to a call at around 12:40 a.m. for a welfare check on a woman who was walking on the shoulder of Missouri 152 Highway near North Oak Trafficway, according to court documents obtained by local NBC affiliate KSHB. Bossell was found at the location with a cut on one of her fingers, which prompted the officers to call for an ambulance.
Fire department paramedics arrived on scene, including Hoffman, and determined that Bossell was not attempting to harm herself or others, KSHB reports. But she was allegedly refusing to go to the hospital.
Prosecutors say officers tried giving the woman a ride home, but she allegedly turned them down and said she would rather go in the ambulance, which she ended up doing. The officers agreed to follow the ambulance to the hospital, and the responders departed together with a squad car in tow.
“After the defendant was put in the ambulance initially, it was being driven to the hospital, [a] police car was following the ambulance,” Thompson said at Sunday’s press conference. “While the car was driving, it’s alleged that that’s when the defendant began her attack. And when the driver of that ambulance pulled over to the side of the road, that’s when the police officers became involved.”
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Thompson detailed how Bossell was in the back of the ambulance and being treated by Hoffman when the driver heard the victim call out that he “needed help,” according to the Clay County prosecutor. The driver pulled over, got out, and immediately went to the back to see what was going on.
“When they opened the back of the ambulance, they could see that a struggle was ensuing,” Thompson alleged. “At that point Graham indicated that the defendant had a knife. … It was a blade, a folding knife, approximately 4 inches in length when folded.” Prosecutors say Hoffman was killed during the fight.
Graham said it was unclear whether the weapon was equipment from the ambulance or if it belonged to Bossell. The knife was allegedly recovered inside the ambulance by investigators.
When Bossell attacked the cop last week during the other incident, she noticed that the officer — who “just got off work” and allegedly spotted Bossell “trying to get into” people’s cars, including his own — had a knife on his police vest and she “tried to grab it several times,” according to her probable cause statement.
“He kept Bossell from grabbing his knife and tried to get on his police radio to get help to his location,” the statement says about the April 23 incident. “As he was reaching for his radio, Bossell took advantage of the situation and bit him on his left forearm. Bossell refused to let go and he tried from yanking his arm free, as it would possibly rip a chunk of his arm out. Officers of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department arrived on scene and placed Bossell in custody.”
After stabbing Hoffman on Sunday, Bossell allegedly pulled a similar move on the officer who was following the ambulance.
Court documents allege that the cop was trying to stop Bossell from getting into the driver’s seat of the emergency vehicle when she bit down on his arm, KSHB reports. He was only able to get her off after using the butt of his service weapon to hit Bossell in the back of the head, the documents say.
Asked about Bossell’s mental health history, Thompson said: “In the state of Missouri, all defendants are presumed to be competent. Any issues with mental health can be addressed during court proceedings.”
Bossell’s bond for the charge in the paramedic’s death was set at $1 million.
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