Weeks after Jon “Mike” Rone Jr. was killed by a white man who allegedly harassed him with a racial slur outside a Kansas City convenience store, friends and family want prosecutors to bring more serious charges against the killer.
As of Friday, the man accused of stabbing 42-year-old Rone, who is Black, twice in the chest during a fight on July 4 is charged only with disturbing the peace.
Sean W. Tonkin, 36, is the man arrested in Rone’s killing. Before the two fought outside Liquor Land, a gas station and liquor store at 14306 E. U.S. 40. on the eastern border of Kansas City, authorities allege Tonkin had been using the N-word “in a hateful and racially-motivated tone” with strangers and then used the slur to address Rone.
Surveillance video of the encounter reviewed by detectives showed Rone, with a club in hand, follow Tonkin to the side of the business out of camera view. Shortly after, Rone stumbled back into the store, uttered “he stabbed me,” and collapsed to the floor.
The only charge prosecutors have brought against Tonkin in the killing is a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace. He also was charged with low-level felony drug possession after police reportedly found less than a gram of meth on him when he was arrested.
Jackson County prosecutors continue to weigh additional state charges as they “examine who started the incident, what weapons were used by the people involved and Missouri’s law on self-defense,” Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, said in a statement to The Star.
“These factors will direct whether further State charges regarding Mr. Rone’s homicide can be filed,” Mansur said, adding that the community “is rightfully angered by the disturbing racial comments of the defendant.”
“We vigorously and categorically condemn that language and its usage in any circumstance,” Mansur said. “We have filed the available Missouri charges that address those racist comments which were made to Jon Rone in a face-to-face manner.”
But, as two weeks have passed since his death, family and friends of Rone are upset, saddened and angry that Tonkin is a $2,500 bond away from getting out of Jackson County jail. They believe Tonkin clearly started the fight and, based on statements from witnesses, was determined to physically harm a Black person that day.
“He intentionally went looking for a problem,” Rone’s sister, who asked that her name not be published because she fears retaliation, said of Tonkin. She said one of the witnesses to the stabbing told her that Tonkin, before killing her younger brother, had asked whether she would like to see “a white boy f--- up a n-----.”
“So how can (Tonkin) not be the aggressor?” she said, adding that prosecutors appear wholly focused on Tonkin’s claims of self-defense instead of the full picture.
“I can barely sleep. I can barely eat. Today is the first time I’ve seen my step kids because I’ve been depressed. Not only trying to grieve my brother, but the fact that the person that killed him is getting away with it,” she said.
“This is horrible,” she added. “I just could never ever think that he will be targeted like that. You know, he has so many white friends. And we have a blended family. We see no color. So this hits home.”
Missouri law on self-defense
Missouri law provides wide latitude for the use of lethal force in self-defense.
According to state statute, such force may be lawfully used when a person “reasonably believes” it is necessary, including certain situations where the person is considered an initial aggressor.
Misty Beck, Rone’s girlfriend since November, was with him the day he was killed. Both of them counted themselves among a crowd of regular customers that hang out there and play the slot machines lined up at the front of the store.
On the day he died, Beck said, Rone had gone out to the car to get his hat when she overheard someone yell the N-word. She went outside and saw him with Tonkin.
She tried to get Rone to come back in. But he calmly told her he was handling it, Beck recalled. Seconds later, she said, a woman ran into the store yelling for someone to call 911.
Beck said she also does not fully understand why state prosecutors have not brought more serious charges against Tonkin.
“I just don’t buy it,” Beck said. “The way that man walked up, called him all those names. Yeah, Mike could’ve turned the other cheek. But why? Why should he have to?”
The state’s robust self-defense law – parts of which are referred to as both the “castle doctrine” and “stand your ground” – came under criticism earlier this year when a white homeowner was briefly detained and released after shooting and injuring Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake.
After public outcry, the 84-year-old white man was charged with first degree assault and other felonies. But talk of the state’s self-defense laws raised questions at the time about whether he would instead go free.
‘A premeditated hate crime’
J.D. Faulkner, remembers his friend Rone as someone who looked out for others, including the regular customers of Liquor Land. Faulkner said the store has a “Cheers”-like atmosphere that’s felt emptier in his absence.
Faulkner said he had recently left the store when a friend texted him about Rone being killed. After hearing about the interactions Tonkin had with others that day, he said, he believes it “was a premeditated hate crime.”
“He hated Black folks, he wanted to do something to Black folks, and Mike was the first person of color that he saw,” he said.
According to court documents, Tonkin was carrying a folding knife with an American flag on the handle. Officers saw blood on the top of his head, his baseball cap and a white T-shirt on the ground next to him. He allegedly tried to hide in the treeline when Independence officers, searching for a man of his description, placed him under arrest.
Charging documents for Tonkin do not mention whether he was interviewed by Kansas City homicide detectives. Police continued to investigate the case this week and have said they were working with federal law partners.
The FBI said the agency is aware of the homicide and is in contact with law enforcement partners. A spokesman for Kansas City’s field office would not confirm whether the FBI was involved.
Meanwhile, as Jackson County prosecutors continue to evaluate the case, spokesman Mansur said the office “has a long and demonstrated history of addressing injustices perpetrated on victims due to racial hostility or enmity and those caused by the criminal justice system.”
In addition to the charges already filed, Mansur said the office also “is ready and willing to provide whatever assistance is necessary to our partners at the Justice Department in their review of this incident for possible federal charges under their available laws.”
“On behalf of all law enforcement partners, we wish to convey our condolences to the family of Mr. Rone. And we will continue to review this matter and add additional charges that are supported by Missouri law.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2023 12:55 PM.