Despite pleas, KC police count hundreds of rounds of celebratory gunfire on New Year’s
Kansas City Police say hundreds of rounds of celebratory gunfire rained down over the New Year’s holiday, hitting as many as a dozen homes with bullets.
As it does at the end of many years, the Kansas City Police Department on Thursday warned against ringing in the new year with gunfire. While shooting into the air might seem harmless, police routinely caution that bullets are just as deadly as they come back down at high velocity.
But the warnings went unheeded.
Kansas City Police Sgt. Jake Becchina said the walls, windows and roofs of at least 12 homes had been reported hit as of 9 a.m. Friday.
“These would at least on the surface appear to be related to celebratory or indiscriminate gunfire,” he said in a news release. “Preliminary indications do not indicate that any of these homes were specifically targeted. That could change as investigation proceeds. But safe assumption at this point is it’s related to holiday gunfire.”
The police department’s ShotSpotter technology reported about 240 gunfire alerts between 6 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, counting a total of about 1,600 rounds fired.
Last year, the department’s ShotSpotter, which relies on acoustic sensors placed throughout the city, was activated 216 times over the holiday.
So far, no injuries were reported from celebratory fire, police said.
“There were two reported gunshot victims from overnight, but neither appeared initially to be related to celebratory gunfire; victims were largely uncooperative and injuries were minor in both,” Becchina said.
Celebratory gunfire has been a threat for years in Kansas City.
On Thursday, Mayor Quinton Lucas recalled sleeping on the floor on New Year’s Eve and Independence Day because of the higher risk of stray celebratory bullets in some Kansas City neighborhoods.
Last year, a bullet pierced through a home in the 5100 block of Osage Avenue, plowing through a wall just inches from where a couple was sleeping.
And it’s not just a Kansas City problem: New Year’s Eve is the busiest night of the year for illegal celebratory gunfire, according to Police Chief, the publication for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Independence Day is also plagued with indiscriminate fire. On July 4, 2011, 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane was hit by a stray bullet as she danced on her uncle’s lawn near Riss Lake in east Kansas City. She died the next day.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 2:04 PM.
