Parole denied for cop-shooter Saeed Aquil

Saeed Aquil, a Missouri prison inmate who was the subject of a December 30 press conference by Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar, will not be released on parole.

This information comes via a letter sent by the Missouri Department of Corrections to former Kansas City Police Department officer Patrick Brown, dated January 25, 2010.

In 1994, Aquil shot Brown and his partner Larry Schoen after the officers attempted to question him during their patrol near 37th and Prospect. Brown and Schoen chased Aquil around the corner of a building. Aquil opened fire and hit Brown in the hip and thigh. Schoen’s bullet-proof vest stopped the .9 millimeter round that smashed into his chest.

Offenders who are found guilty of first-degree assault on a police officer aren’t eligible for parole until they’ve carried out 85 percent of their sentence, as dictated by Missouri sentencing guidelines. But a loophole existed during the window of time in which Aquil was sentenced — between 1994 and 2003 — in which first-degree and assault on a law enforcement officer was not included among the “dangerous felonies” that trigger the 85-percent rule.