Suburban Kansas City woman accused of shooting parent in fight near school bus stop
Jackson County prosecutors have charged a 24-year-old woman with three felonies, including armed criminal action, stemming from a fight between parents near a school bus stop in Blue Springs that ended in gunfire.
On Wednesday, around 3:40 p.m., Blue Springs police officers were dispatched to Southwest Imperial Lane and Southwest Orchard Lane, roughly 200 feet north of a bus stop for children in the Lee’s Summit school district, on a reported shooting. A gunshot victim, identified in court documents as a mother of a student, had been struck with a bullet once in the hip.
The alleged shooter, Vacete Davis, of Lee’s Summit, was identified by police as the suspect after witnesses provided video of the encounter. Police announced Friday that Davis had been arrested and charged.
Witnesses interviewed by police, including the daughter of the wounded woman and other students, described a fight between adults near the bus stop. At one point, the woman shot was seen ripping the windshield wipers off of a white Nissan sedan, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Detectives were shown a cellphone video of the shooting. In it, the gunshot victim is standing a few feet away from the rear of the white Nissan, her back turned, when the driver’s side window rolls down and a gunshot is heard, according to police.
The video then shows the vehicle pull away as the gunshot victim is on the ground.
During a child forensic police interview, the student whose mother was shot said she got off the bus as a woman was trying to fight other parents. She started to record the encounter when the woman approached and “snatched” her phone from her, she told police.
The youth got her mom, who went outside to confront the woman, she said, and was nearly hit by a car during the interaction. She said her mother jumped on the car to avoid being struck.
Afterward, she said, she saw the car’s window roll down and her mom get shot.
Prosecutors on Friday charged Davis with unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action. She was also accused of stealing an item worth more than $750 for allegedly taking the student’s iPhone.
Davis was being held in the Jackson County jail on a $200,000 bond. Court records did not list a defense attorney representing her in the case as of Friday.
The shooting near the bus stop prompted school district officials this week to expand resources, including additional counselors, for students and staff at Mason Elementary, Bernard Campbell Middle School and Lee’s Summit North High School. The district also requested more police patrols at school sites Thursday.
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 7:31 PM.
