With 6 killings in 26 hours, KC suffers deadliest weekend of already bloody year
Six people were killed in homicides Saturday and Sunday in Kansas City, marking the deadliest weekend in a year already on pace to see a record number of slayings.
The violence that plagued various parts of the city for a 26-hour period ranged from an accidental shooting to domestic violence to disputes settled by gunfire. One of the shootings was a double homicide.
Mayor Quinton Lucas called the number of homicides this weekend “devastating.” He said curbing the city’s level of violence is its most important issue, now and in the future.
“I never sleep through the night generally anyway; weekends like that make it even tougher,” Lucas said.
The final killing of the weekend marked the 127th homicide this year in Kansas City, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes police shootings. There had been 90 homicides by this time last year, which ended with 153. Kansas City’s deadliest year was 2017, when 155 homicides were recorded.
Before Sunday night, the deadliest weekend of 2020 was in mid-May, when four people were killed in homicides between Friday evening and Monday morning.
“Each of these families will endure a new anniversary — the day their loved one was taken from them,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release. “And they must begin to walk the long torturous road of grieving, healing and living without a part of them.”
Damon Daniel, president of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, said advocates such as himself “are really frustrated and I think beyond fed up” with every new killing.
There is only so much that can be done to prevent shootings when resources are not focused on the root causes of violence, Daniel said. Neighborhoods that suffer from violence also often have higher unemployment rates and see more vacant homes, among other things. More resources should be invested in education and skill-building, he added.
“Until then, we’re going to continue to see the crime rates where they’re at,” Daniel said.
There is also likely an increase in people suffering from depression and substance abuse amid the coronavirus pandemic, Daniel said. Others may be confined to homes that are toxic environments.
In addition to that, violence prevention programs and services that were in place before the virus outbreak, such as home visits and vigils, have been limited for the safety of advocates.
“COVID has really, I think, shed light on all the inequalities that have existed for quite some time,” Daniel said.
Non-fatal shootings have also increased this year. As of Sunday, 397 people have been shot and survived this year compared to 317 by that time last year, according to police data.
With the exception of March, each month this year has seen an increase in non-fatal shootings. In May, non-fatal shootings were up 74% compared to 2019, from 47 to 82, police said.
‘Completely senseless’
The killings this weekend began at 6 p.m. Saturday, when two unresponsive men with gunshot wounds, Arlin Jones, 67, and Kenneth Hanan, 59, were found in the backyard of a home near East 47th Terrace and Sterling Avenue.
Jackson County prosecutors Monday charged Kevin McClanahan, 40, of Kansas City, in the homicides. He was accused of shooting one of the men multiple times and then the other as he walked up the driveway.
One witness told detectives she talked McClanahan out of shooting her, prosecutors said.
When her office announced the charges, Baker said the recent killings were the “tragic outcome” of difficult factors that require the entire community coming together to address.
Then on Sunday, detectives were called at 7:30 a.m. to a home in the 3700 block of Benton Boulevard, where Derrick Davis, 28, was fatally shot.
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Later in the afternoon, police responded to a fatal shooting about 5 p.m. in a parking lot of the Kansas City Zoo — the first of three homicides within four hours across the city.
Detectives believed that victim, a man, was shot while inside a vehicle with three other people in the 6800 block of Zoo Drive. He got out and collapsed on the ground. He has not been identified.
Sgt. Jake Becchina, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman, said Monday the preliminary investigation showed the shooting was accidental. Detectives identified a person of interest and will work with prosecutors to determine any charges, he said.
Speaking at the scene Sunday, as children played a few hundred feet away at Swope Park, Becchina said safe gun ownership would prevent accidental gunfire while conflict resolution would help people use their words instead of pulling firearms to diffuse situations.
“Whether this was an accident or whether this was on purpose, either way, completely senseless and totally avoidable,” he said. “It doesn’t have to happen like this; it just really doesn’t.”
In a statement, the Kansas City Zoo called the shooting an “unfortunate incident” that occurred just before its closing at 5 pm. It thanked zoo staff and police for their quick responses.
“Please join us in sending thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of those involved,” the statement said.
About the same time, another death came through police radios that detectives are probing as a homicide: Stacey Bell, 56, was found dead with apparent injuries at a home in the 8100 block of Ward Parkway Plaza.
One of her relatives, a woman in her 20s, was detained by officers. Police called the death “a domestic violence situation.”
Neighbors there wandered out of their homes, some without shoes, to watch red and blue police lights flash off the crime scene tape blocking their street.
A couple hours later, at about 7:30 p.m., Maxwell Hill, 19, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Tony Aguirre Community Center in the 2000 block of West Pennway Terrace on the West Side.
Throughout the weekend, city detectives were assisted in the investigations by agents working alongside them through Operation LeGend, the federal crime-fighting initiative named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot in June. They were helping gather information by canvassing the area and interviewing witnesses, among other things.
“It looks like additional detectives,” Becchina said Sunday. “This has been a draining day, but it would have been more draining were those federal investigators not there right alongside of them.”
The federal operation has been expanded to other cities that are also experiencing an uptick in violence. That includes St. Louis, where homicides are up nearly 34%, and Memphis, where killings have spiked 49%, according to the Department of Justice.
Federal prosecutors in western Missouri have said the operation has led to the arrest of 12 homicide suspects so far.
Daniel, of Ad Hoc, said the operation has not slowed violent crime in the city.
“Will it lock up violent offenders? Yes,” he said. “But is it a prevention model? No.”
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 1:46 PM with the headline "With 6 killings in 26 hours, KC suffers deadliest weekend of already bloody year."
