Kansas City family pleads for clues during vigil for shooting victim

Rebecca Scott stared Friday at the poster-size photo of her 25-year-old son on display at a prayer vigil and shook her head in disbelief.

“No mother should have to go through what I am going through,” Scott told of a group of about 60 people in a parking lot at 33rd Street and Indiana Avenue.

Rodney Peoples, her son, was gunned down a week ago at that intersection on Indiana Avenue, in front of the home he shared with his girlfriend and his children. The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Peoples was found sprawled on the sidewalk across the street from Central Academy. He died there.

Peoples was the city’s 45th homicide for 2016. Kansas City has recorded 46 homicides this year, a 35 percent increase from last year’s total as of June 12.

At the vigil on Friday, Scott said the senseless violence that took her son’s life has to stop.

“We don’t need for this to keep happening,” she told the crowd, many of them holding red heart-shaped balloons. “Let him rest in peace.”

Rodney Peoples was a rapper who recently started his own recording label. He was born and raised in the surrounding neighborhood. Peoples attended Central High School and was the father of twin 4-month-old daughters and a 2-year-old son.

Taquila Huff said her brother was caring, thoughtful, often outspoken and someone she helped raised. But someone who didn’t deserve to die.

Peoples often called Huff to help him sort out his problems or when he needed a favor.

“You all didn’t take my brother, you all took my baby, you all took my son,” she said during the hourlong vigil. “Somebody knows something. It is time for this to stop.”

Members of Kansas City Mothers in Charge, an anti-crime group, passed out fliers seeking tips for police.

“It’s a problem when we can’t make people responsible,” said the group’s leader, Rosilyn Temple. “Homicides are going to continue to happen until we step up and take some responsibilities in our homes.”

Anyone with information about the shooting should call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.

This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Kansas City family pleads for clues during vigil for shooting victim."