‘I’m done with Kansas City’: Father mourns slain teenage son, condemns city gun violence
On the day Rashan Stenson Jr. was shot and killed, the family was having a party for his older sister’s high school graduation.
It was a milestone the family planned to celebrate again soon after the 17-year-old finished his senior year at Winnetonka High School. The teenager aspired to one day take over the family contracting business, his father Rashan Stenson Sr. said.
“He was having the time of his life for real. He just went to prom … and then this happened,” the elder Stenson said during an interview with The Star. “His life was taken from him.”
Now, those future plans have been replaced by arrangements at the funeral home. And the family is devastated as they come to grips with a senseless crime that cut Stenson Jr.’s life short, his father said.
On Sunday afternoon, Kansas City police officers were called to a reported shooting near the intersection of 79th Terrace and Campbell Street. Neighbors directed arriving officers to Stenson Jr., who was lying in the street unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel.
Kansas City police say early findings from the investigation suggest Stenson Jr. was speaking with someone inside a vehicle when an argument or disturbance unfolded. Someone in the vehicle fired shots and then fled the area.
No arrests have been made in the case. As of Tuesday, there had been no major developments with the investigation, said Capt. Leslie Foreman, a department spokeswoman.
Known by his family as Junior, Stenson Sr. said his son was a star athlete who loved basketball and football. He was outgoing, free-spirited, competitive and an all-around good kid, his father said.
Stenson Jr. was one of six kids in a blended family. He split time living with his mother in the Northland, and his father and stepmother in the Foxtown East neighborhood. He came from a strong family and was being “groomed to be a boss” when he grew up, his father said.
He was also good with his hands. His father, a union carpenter, said Stenson Jr. helped him rehabilitate houses, including an old family property they remodeled together.
“That kid could do anything he set his mind to,” Stenson Sr. said.
In the days since his son’s killing, Stenson Sr. said he only knows what little he’s seen in the news or heard from the Kansas City police detective assigned to his son’s case. But he said the killing stands as another example of the violent mentality that is commonplace among inner city kids without positive things to do.
“They pick up these guns (and) they think this is a game,” Stenson Sr. said. “This is not a game. This is real life.”
Services for Stenson Jr. are coming up in a few days. His father said he expects a large showing from the many who cared for his son — family, friends, coaches and schoolteachers.
Afterward, Stenson Sr. says he wants to leave Kansas City as soon as he can. He said he does not want to raise his younger kids in a place where the violence seems to get worse every day.
“I’m done with Kansas City,” he said. “I’m not burying nobody else here.”
Police are asking anyone with information about Stenson’s killing to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. A $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the case.
