Limited details, no arrests disclosed in recent high-profile Kansas City shootings

While police have highlighted the extensive security operation surrounding the World Cup, questions remain about why there have been few public updates in several of the city’s recent high-profile shootings.

In three separate crime scenes in Kansas City over the last few weeks, 13 people have been left injured by gunfire, three have been killed and no arrests have been announced.

“The microscope of the world is on Kansas City, but it seems a telescope is on our community,” said Rev. Darron Edwards, lead pastor at United Believers Community Church. “It seems like there’s a huge disconnect between what is happening in our city and getting solutions and community engagement.”

No arrests or updates have been made in the mass shooting at an unlicensed, after-hours club on Troost that left nine people injured by gunfire or the double homicide that occurred at a Westport Quiktrip. And police are actively seeking a suspect in the string of Interstate shootings that happened Tuesday.

Police Department officials did not respond to questions on Thursday on whether there had been any updates in the three cases.

The suspect in five shootings on Tuesday, Oscar Sánchez-Muñoz, remains on the run, with police considering him to be armed and dangerous.

Edwards said public updates can encourage witnesses to come forward, reassure victims’ families that investigations remain active, and build confidence that crimes are being pursued even when arrests are not made immediately.

Edwards said he questioned whether the presence of the World Cup is impacting what information is being released and when. Police have repeatedly said additional law enforcement officers were brought in so World Cup security would not interfere with normal policing operations.

Graves said during a Wednesday press conference that the reason so many law enforcement agencies were brought in was to keep Kansas City safe during the World Cup.

“We have everything from protection from the air to the ground, we have it covered,” Graves said. “We brought in a lot of outside law enforcement ... so we can keep those events safe and also make sure that we have enough law enforcement officers to police our city.”

Edwards said he applauded Police Chief Graves for speaking publicly about the Interstate 70 shootings, but still questioned whether community engagement was taking place in effective ways.

“We’ll never get to the outcomes that we choose to if we have police who will not want to engage with leaders in the city, and we have communities that don’t want to engage with police because of a lack of faith,” Edwards said.

Kansas City officers are actively searching for the suspect in a string of Interstate shootings, but there have been no arrests despite two stand-offs with police at two separate houses.

Police have emphasized that investigators quickly identified a suspect in the interstate shootings and that this was an isolated incident. The shooting took place Tuesday evening as fans were heading to Kansas City Stadium, which was hosting the first of six World Cup matches this year.

Interstate shootings

Officers were notified of four motorists, including an Uber driver, who had been shot between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. One or more shots had been fired into their vehicles.

The vehicles were reportedly shot at Interstate 670 and Wyoming Street, Interstate 70 and Paseo Boulevard, I-70 and Prospect Avenue, and at Truman Road and Hardesty Avenue, according to police. Four people were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Three of the victims are adults and one is a minor. Only one had injuries considered to be life-threatening, according to police.

The suspect was also linked to a fatal car crash reported around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Truman Road and Bennington. As medical staff treated a man injured in the crash, they found that he also had been shot. The man, who has yet to be publicly identified, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Graves said that Sanchez-Munoz, 22, was tracked to a house in Independence where he barricaded himself inside. The house caught fire around 12 a.m. Tuesday, and Sanchez-Munoz was able to escape the home without being apprehended.

Detectives got information that led them to search a home near 16th Street and Kensington Avenue, where an Operation 100, a police tactical response to a standoff scene, began Wednesday night.

The standoff lasted through the overnight hours and ended after officers entered the home and did not find the suspect.

Recent shootings at Troost and QuikTrip

Nine people were injured in a shooting outside an unlicensed club on Troost Avenue and 79th Street in the early morning of June 9.

The shooting happened even after a 311 complaint warned the city a week before the event that social media posts were advertising an unlicensed business’s plans to serve alcohol without a liquor license.

Responding officers found a large crowd fleeing the area and that three women had been shot. All three victims had non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at nearby hospitals. Six other shooting victims also showed up at hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

Despite the social media advertisements and the 311 complaints, the Police Department said they were “not aware of a specific event occurring Saturday morning.”

Less than a full day later, officers responded to a shooting inside a QuikTrip convenience store in the 1200 block of Westport Road that left two dead.

Officers were summoned to the store around 11:30 p.m. on June 9 and found two men suffering from gunshot wounds inside the business, according to police. One victim, later identified as 24-year-old Rickey Cal, died at the scene.

The second victim, 18-year-old Jeron Jackson, was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died June 10, according to police.

Ben Wheeler

The Kansas City Star