Teen was road rage victim in Kansas City. Now he’ll be honored at national celebration
Just four months before Christopher Hutson Jr. was shot and killed in May 2017 in a Kansas City road rage incident, he signed up to be an organ donor. The teen told his mother that he wanted to help other people.
That decision helped give life to seven people who received his organs after he tragically lost his. In the months that followed, the family befriended Gary Dixon, the Independence man who received Christopher’s 19-year-old heart.
Christopher will be honored on New Year’s Day during the venerable Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, typically seen by millions of TV viewers.
A floragraph — a portrait made of floral materials — of Christopher will be featured on the Donate Life float, which since 2004 has honored deceased organ, eye and tissue donors from around the country.
Christopher’s parents, Carthesa and Christopher Hutson Sr., of Lee’s Summit, will be there and were set to receive a send-off Monday at Research Medical Center.
Dixon, representatives of the Midwest Transplant Network and the hospital’s trauma center team, which took care of Christopher, were scheduled to attend.
“I am overwhelmed with deep gratitude to be invited to this caregiver reunion and be able to personally thank everyone for being so kind and compassionate to us during a very painful time,” Carthesa Hutson, who also lost a brother to gun violence, said in a statement.
“While Christopher’s legacy will continue the more we speak about him, it also brings sadness that his life was lost due to senseless gun violence. And until people put their guns away, there will be yet another family in our shoes tomorrow. Gun violence is too prevalent, and it must stop.”
Christopher was driving home that day in May from an ultrasound appointment with his pregnant girlfriend when they got lost. Family members said Christopher was driving cautiously on Holmes Road near Interstate 435 when he encountered John C. Young, 46, of Independence.
Young became upset with Hutson and yelled, “Learn to (expletive) drive,” according to Christopher’s girlfriend, his high school sweetheart.
Young pulled up to Hutson’s car near 104th Street and Holmes Road and shot him in the head, the bullet piercing him between the eyes. Christopher died the next day.
Evidence at trial revealed that while Christopher fought for his life, Young went to work as if nothing had happened, went fishing in Branson and attended a Royals game with his wife.
A jury in February 2018 found Young guilty of involuntary manslaughter and other offenses. He was sentenced to what amounted to 24 years in prison.
Christopher’s son was born a couple of months after he died. He was named Christopher Hutson III.
Families of donors honored on the Donate Life float are expected to make themselves available for media interviews, and also help decorate their loved one’s floragraph. Talking about her son is something Carthesa Hutson is more than willing to do.
“Christopher is living on through other people,” she said in a statement. “Any time I get the opportunity to say Christopher’s name and talk about him I feel like he’s still here.”
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