Was Sunday’s shooting in Westport’s checkpoint area? What to know about the added security
A shooting in Westport left one person dead and five others injured on Sunday night. The shooting happened outside of Westport Ale House at the corner of 41st Street and Broadway Boulevard around 11 p.m..
Kansas City police officers were involved in the shooting, but investigators don’t yet know if the officers involved shot anyone because of the amount of gunfire from other people, Missouri State Highway Patrol told The Star.
Although a night in Westport involves enhanced security checkpoints on Friday and Saturday nights, there were no metal detectors or added security in the area on Sunday night.
The area where the shots rang out is also not typically covered by the area weekend security checkpoint once you reach Broadway Boulevard.
When did the security checkpoints in Westport start?
Since 2018, Westport has been pretty heavily secured between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Each weekend between April and October, the corridor becomes a pedestrian only area, where each person must be 21 years old or older and be scanned for weapons to enter the area.
Despite added security precautions throughout the Westport area, shootings still persist. On July 1, there was another shooting in Westport, where police officers had a hours-long stand-off with a suspect at the 4100 block of Broadway.
“With multiple police officers and security guards present, we still saw a shootout on the streets of our city,” Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted on Monday morning.
“The easy access to guns and the total lack of safeguards in our state to keep people from carrying them almost anywhere continues to put our people at risk each day.”
Where is the extra security in Westport?
The 2018 security measures added metal detectors, wands and street barricades to each entrance to the Westport bar district. There are typically five security checkpoints to get into the entertainment district each weekend, including checkpoints at:
Westport Road and Broadway Boulevard
Westport Road and Mills Street
Pennsylvania Avenue and Archibald Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue and W 40th Street
Another between Mills Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
What happens at each checkpoint?
Each checkpoint is blocked off with street barricades and has a metal detector. After passing through the metal detector, staff contracted by the Westport Regional Business League will do a second screening where they will wand each visitor down to make sure they don’t have any prohibited items.
Prohibited items include firearms and knives with blades more than 3 inches long. Other random items like glow sticks and hoverboards are prohibited as well.
What led to the decision to add security to Westport?
The security enhancements came after the Kansas City Council voted to allow for the privatization of some sidewalks in 2017, which allowed the entertainment district to add security checkpoints. Since guns can be banned from private property, the privatization also allows police to seize weapons from Westport visitors.
Updated coverage on the recent July 11 shooting can be found here.
This story was originally published July 11, 2022 at 3:38 PM.