KC mom reached sobriety milestone before deadly shooting: ‘Hard to go on’
Carissa ‘Star’ Perryman of Kansas City was a lot of things to the people who loved her — a mom, a caretaker, a daughter, a fiancée.
But on May 12, the 29-year-old woman lost her life to violence after a shooting in a Kansas City alley witnessed by her mother and fiancée, who are now trying to keep Perryman’s memory alive for her daughter.
“I love her,” said Tabatha Newman, Perryman’s mother. “I miss her very much, and it’s hard to go on without her, but I am. I have to for the baby,” she said.
Perryman was the type of person to let friends stay over when they needed to get back on their feet, said Ashley Forbbes, Perryman’s fiancée. She was an open ear to anybody, always wanting to help people, she said.
“She was a different person, but she just gave a different kind of love,” said Forbbes.
Following an argument with another woman, Perryman was shot and killed midday one recent Monday in an alley in the 1600 block of Topping Avenue, according to Kansas City police. Police arrived on the scene at 12:30 p.m., where they found Perryman unresponsive. She was transported to an area hospital, where she later died.
Officers detained an adult female as part of the investigation, which police said this week remains active and ongoing.
Forbbes and Newman said they were standing in the alley when the shooting happened.
“I was walking away when the girl shot her,” said Newman.
Forbess recalled previously having an altercation with a neighboring couple, who she said were blocking the alley with their vehicle a couple of days prior.
That day, after seeing a puff of smoke and hearing loud bangs outside their house, Perryman, Forbbes, and Newman rushed to the alley to investigate, where a verbal altercation ensued with the neighbor, said Forbbes. Perryman and the lady began to physically fight, she alleged.
“I heard a pop, and that’s whenever my fiancée looked at me and she said ‘Baby, she shot me,’ and she just kind of dropped down to the ground,” said Forbbes.
Perryman just getting her life on track when the shooting happened, said her mother Newman, following a troubled childhood and adult adversity.
Road to recovery cut short
Perryman’s birth was a phenomenon, her mother said.
“My uterus didn’t want to hold her,” said Newman.
After spending the pregnancy on bed rest and miraculously delivering a healthy baby, Perryman’s parents wanted a name to match the miracle. They decided to give her the middle name Star, shared Newman.
That was Perryman’s first hardship in life. Later, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and medicated at a young age, her mother said, relaying some of the ups and downs Perryman faced growing up.
As a teenager, she got into a drug habit, later dropping out of school in the 11th grade at Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas, said Newman. In 2014, she was federally charged with possession of a controlled substance, according to Missouri court records.
“She had an anger problem,” she said. “Just came up every once in a while.”
A month after the birth of Perryman’s daughter, she was imprisoned, Newman said, causing what came to be a rocky relationship between Perryman and her daugher, now 8. When her daughter was 2 years old, Perryman was released from prison. The relationship had been improving recently while Perryman worked to maintain her sobriety for the six months before her passing, said Newman.
“Carissa was staying off drugs,” said Newman. “She was with somebody that she really cared for and really loved, and they were making a life together when this happened.”
She was working as her mother’s aide, and she and Forbbes were going strong.
The two met at a laundromat and were hoping to raise their two daughters together. They even had plans to get a chihuahua, said Forbbes.
“She just wanted to do the family thing. She just wanted to live right, happy, and peacefully, and do the family thing,” she said. Perryman had finally turned her life around healthwise, both mentally and physically, according to Forbbes.
“She was doing so good. I couldn’t believe this,” said Newman, who said Perryman was finally doing everything she was supposed to be doing in life when she died.
“She just all around wanted to be a better person so that she was happier with herself,” said Forbbes.
Newman, who is disabled and on a fixed income, is raising funds for cremation services for her daughter with a GoFundMe that can be found here.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 5:26 PM.
