US attorney says KC Operation LeGend arrests over 350, including in 33 homicide cases
Local and federal law enforcement officers have made 355 arrests, including 33 in homicide cases, in Operation LeGend, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City announced Tuesday in a news release.
Officers have also seized 122 firearms since the launch of the operation in July, Timothy Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said Tuesday.
The operation named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment in late June, brought federal law enforcement officers into Kansas City to help curb the surge of violent crime. It has since expanded to other cities.
Garrison announced that of the 355 arrested in the Kansas City area, 88 have been charged in federal court in Kansas City. Another 21 are federal defendants elsewhere — 18 in Kansas and three in Texas.
Among those arrested, 33 involve homicide cases. While some have been charged, it’s unclear how many arrests have led to prosecution.
“I don’t know how many have been charged or how many victims they represent, because these are not our cases and we don’t have the means to track state cases,” said Don Ledford, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kansas City’s murder cases are handled by the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, but officials there said they don’t know how many cases have involved Operation LeGend.
They know what’s in the probable cause statement that details the evidence of the investigation not the arrest, said spokesman Michael Mansur.
Another 62 of those arrested were fugitives with either state or federal warrants for their arrests, according to the release.
Of the 151 remaining arrests, the suspects either allegedly violated their supervised release or were referred to local prosecutors for unspecified state charges.
Here’s the breakdown of those charged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri for the following federal crimes:
- 35 defendants with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
- 26 defendants with drug trafficking.
- Five defendants with being a drug user in possession of a firearm.
- Six defendants with being in possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
- Five defendants with being in possession of a firearm in furtherance of violent crime.
- Two defendants with being a felon in possession of ammunition.
- Four defendants with armed robbery.
- Three defendants with carjacking.
- Two defendants with arson.
On Monday, President Donald Trump erroneously claimed that murders had sharply declined by 33% in Kansas City since the launch of Operation LeGend.
Trump administration officials said that the president’s misstatement came from a tweet from the Kansas City Police Department, which wrote on Aug. 25 that violent crime overall — not just homicides — had declined 30% since the federal operation began.
Homicides have declined by 15%, according to the police department.
So far this year, the city has recorded 135 homicides, putting it on track to become the deadliest year on record.
About two weeks ago, U.S. attorney General William Barr announced in Kansas City that around 1,500 arrests have been made as part of Operation LeGend across the country, including suspects in 90 homicides.
One of those arrested includes LeGend’s alleged killer. Prosecutors have since charged Ryson Ellis, 22, of Kansas City, with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action.
Since its creation in Kansas City, the operation has been expanded to other cities seeing an uptick in violence. That includes St. Louis, Memphis, Chicago, Albuquerque, Detroit and Milwaukee.
The operation has sent more than 1,000 additional agents to work with police in those cities, including an additional 185 agents in Kansas City from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
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 September 1, 2020 at 1:34 PM.
