Man living in tent at south Kansas City church charged in stabbing of man helping him
A man who had been living in a tent at a church property in south Kansas City has been charged in the stabbing of a man who had been assisting him Sunday morning, police said.
Kansas City police were called to First Church of the Nazarene on State Line Road around 11 a.m. Sunday and found a victim with a stab wound to his chest and several people restraining a man, who authorities identified as Jarod A. Hill. As police were taking Hill away, he grabbed for an officer’s holstered gun, according to charging documents.
Hill was charged with one count of first-degree assault and one count of armed criminal action in Jackson County Circuit Court Monday. Hill was being held on a $100,000 cash bond, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police later spoke with the victim at an area hospital, and he told investigators of struggling with Hill as the man stabbed him and held a knife to his neck, according to court documents. The man had deep lacerations on his chest and hand.
Witnesses said Hill had been living in a tent at the church’s property for two nights, and had been upset because someone had spray-painted his tent.
Hill went with the eventual stabbing victim inside the building to look at the church’s surveillance footage to see if the act had been caught on camera. He was given food and was told the incident hadn’t been captured on video and was asked to leave after he told members of the church’s emergency response team they were liars, according to the charging document.
Witnesses said the victim later was looking up directions to a laundromat for Hill when Hill put the other man in a headlock, pulled a knife and stabbed him in the chest. Hill held the knife to the victim’s throat, they said.
One witness said another person who was armed handed him a gun and he held the gun to HIll’s chest and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off because there was no round in the chamber, according to court documents. Those at the church were able to disarm Hill and restrain him until police arrived.
This story was originally published October 14, 2024 at 7:16 PM.
