Kansas City mayor’s office moves to shut down businesses near site of mass shooting
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office has called for the operating licenses to be immediately revoked for several businesses running “unlicensed clubs” at the site of a mass shooting outside an auto shop that killed three people last month, the mayor’s office announced in a news release.
The 4:30 a.m. shooting on June 25 at an after-hours party at an auto shop at 57th Street and Prospect Avenue claimed the lives of Jasity J. Strong, 28, Camden M. Brown, 29, and Nikko A. Manning, 22. Several others were wounded in the shooting.
Melesa Johnson, the Mayor’s Director for Public Safety, has requested that the licenses for the businesses operating at 5644 and 5646 Prospect Avenue be revoked and that businesses operating “unlicensed clubs” there be closed.
The businesses holding licenses to operate there are Da Shop LLC, KC Perfect Auto Sales LLC, Perfect Touch Auto Detail and Streetsmart2700, according to a letter to Mari Ruck, Kansas City’s commissioner of revenue.
“I respect our businesses, but reckless disregard for the safety of patrons, neighbors, and our community will never be tolerated in Kansas City,” Mayor Lucas said in the release. “Three people lost their lives, nine more were injured, and dozens of lives were changed due in no small part to the gross negligence of an unlicensed club owner, masquerading as an auto repair shop open at 4 a.m. in the morning.”
In her letter, Johnson wrote that businesses routinely hosted an unlicensed and unsafe nightclub events at those addresses.
Police have responded to more than three dozen 911 calls between midnight and 6 a.m. over the past year relating to an unlicensed club and its impact on the surrounding neighborhood, according to the news release. Prior to the mass shooting, the calls included reports of shots fired, disturbance, shooting and traffic violations, according to the letter.
“Given the litany of tragic and violent incidents, the ongoing unlicensed and illegal club operations of the licensees at the subject addresses will continue to endanger the safety of the community and endanger the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of Kansas Citians and visitors,” she wrote.
This story was originally published July 14, 2023 at 1:52 PM.
