DOJ to launch anti-violence effort in Kansas City named for 4-year-old killed in June
The U.S. Department of Justice is launching a new initiative to curb violent crime in Kansas City, and it’s named after LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year-old shot and killed while sleeping in his bedroom last month.
Attorney General William Barr announced Wednesday that Operation Legend will send national law enforcement officers into Kansas City within the next 10 days to quell a “surge of violent crime.”
As part of the effort, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, Barr directed agents from the Department of Justice’s law enforcement agencies — the FBI, the United States Marshals Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to arrive in the city within the next week and a half. Over 100 FBI agents, U.S. marshals, DEA agents and ATF agents will work with state and local law enforcement agencies in Kansas City, according to a press release from the department.
The department will also send additional resources to Timothy A. Garrison, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, to help handle an expected increase in prosecutions, the release said.
Operation Legend will begin in Kansas City and be expanded to other cities dealing with rising rates of violent crime, the release said.
Taliferro became Kansas City’s youngest homicide victim this year after he was fatally shot in his sleep around 2:30 a.m. on June 29 at The Citadel Apartments on Bushman Road.
He was the 95th homicide in a year on track to be the city’s deadliest in history. There have been 103 homicides in Kansas City in 2020 as of July 8 compared with 74 by the same time in 2019, according to data maintained by The Star.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a statement Wednesday saying he learned about Operation Legend through Twitter. As he understands the plan, Lucas said, federal law enforcement officials will investigate unsolved murders and shootings and will not participate in daily policing or patrol activities.
“The investigative support effort announced this afternoon can be only one tool out of many, such as mental health treatment and restorative justice, in addressing violent crime,” Lucas said in his statement.
Garrison wrote in a statement to the Star that the Department of Justice was in contact earlier this week with the offices of the mayor, the Jackson County prosecutor, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson. He said the details “came together rapidly, with a sense of urgency to prevent more deaths with each passing day.”
“These state and local offices welcomed additional federal resources,” Garrison wrote. “Although they may not have been aware of all the evolving details of the operation, they positively responded to our offer of support. That support not only includes federal agents, but my commitment to provide the legal horsepower to prosecute as many of these criminal cases as possible in federal court.”
The announcement comes after Lucas wrote a public letter to Parson, asking for a special session of the Missouri General Assembly to work on legislation that would combat rising violent crime rates in Kansas City.
“As I said in my letter sent last week to Governor Parson that was cited by the White House this afternoon, ‘[W]e will continue to pursue a broad set of social services and other tools to address violent crime now and in the future.’ As mayor, I remain committed to working on all solutions to making our city safer and finding peace for all those impacted by violent crime.”
In the July 3 letter, Lucas expressed that in his 11 months as mayor, dealing with violent crime and gun violence in particular had presented the greatest challenges.
“We are at a crisis point in Kansas City and we need state legislative action on several items we have previously discussed to address our problem,” Lucas said in his letter to Parson.
Lucas said in an interview with The Star at the time that he spoke with Parson and knew he had an interest in taking action to reduce violence in the city. He also advocated that Missouri spend more money on witness protection in the state. Missouri lacks a comprehensive witness protection program, and Kansas City police have used their own funds to move witnesses during murder investigations, The Star reported in late 2019.
So far, a special session has not been confirmed. Parson had visited the White House Tuesday to discuss the possibility of reopening schools.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 6:59 PM with the headline "DOJ to launch anti-violence effort in Kansas City named for 4-year-old killed in June."