Styrofoam cup, straw lead police to man charged in Westport fatal shooting

Authorities used DNA evidence from a Styrofoam cup and drinking straw collected from a crime scene in Westport to link a 35-year-old convicted felon to an October fatal shooting.

Tyre L. Jackson of Kansas City faces second-degree murder, robbery and armed criminal action charges in the death of Derrick Jones, 25. The shooting happened Oct. 22 near 41st and Mill streets.

Officers responded to the area just before 11:30 p.m. on a report of shots fired behind a grocery store. An off-duty Kansas City police officer located Jones, who sustained a gunshot wound to his upper body. A witness told police that Jones and two other people were robbed and then carjacked.

Jones was taken to a hospital, where he later died. The vehicle stolen during the robbery was later found unoccupied at Valentine Road and Broadway.

According to court records, a witness told investigators that he, Jones and another man were inside a parked car behind the Sun Fresh grocery store when Jackson and an accomplice accosted them.

Jones and other men emptied what was in their pockets onto the ground when one of the robbers said, “Give me what you got.” Not satisfied, the robbers demanded more from the victims. Jones was shot during a struggle that ensued between him and one of the gunmen. The robbers sped away in the victim’s car.

Surveillance video collected near the crime scene showed Jackson and another man in the area at the time of the shooting. Both men held a white Styrofoam cup.

A cup and straw were recovered from the scene and lab tests of DNA from the cup matched Jackson, who uses the nickname “Lil Ree.” Shell casings recovered at the homicide scene matched a gun and casings later found in Jackson’s vehicle, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors charged Jackson in December with robbery in another case. Prior to that, Jackson was sentenced to 23 years in a Missouri prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to robbery, armed criminal action and kidnapping. He was on probation at the time of the shooting.

This story was originally published September 8, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Styrofoam cup, straw lead police to man charged in Westport fatal shooting."