KANSAS CITY, Kan. A Kansas City, Kansas police officer died after being hit by a driver during a police chase Tuesday morning, Chief Karl Oakman confirmed.

KCK officer Hunter Simoncic was hit while trying to stop a car involved in a chase and was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He has since died from his injuries.

Simoncic was 26 years old and graduated from the Kansas City, Kansas Police Academy in 2023. He was from Galesburg, Kansas.

He was hit near Kansas City, Kansas Community College, at the intersection of 75th and State Avenue, around midnight Tuesday.

Police were originally called to the area for sounds of shots fired. When officers arrived they found an armed suspect in a car and the chase began.

FOX4 was told that as an officer deployed stop sticks, the suspect drove over the median to avoid the stop sticks, and hit the officer.

Police said the suspect kept driving after hitting the officer and eventually crashed a few blocks away. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for injuries.

KCK Police Chief Karl Oakman spoke on the risk officers take when taking on the job following the incident.

“It’s a dangerous job and the men and women of this department go above and beyond every day knowing those dangers. Sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense for someone to do something like that, to deliberately hit the officer, to go out of their way to strike that officer,” Oakman said.

As of 6 a.m., State Avenue is closed from 75th Street to College Parkway.