Shooting near 18th & Vine happened after security quit for night. ‘We all left at 9’
A security officer working at Kansas City’s Juneteenth celebration said a fatal shooting near the event Friday evening happened after the festival wrapped up for the evening and security officers had left.
Several people were injured and one man was killed in a shooting in Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District, close to its annual Juneteenth celebration, police said. Festival activities resumed Saturday.
“The shooting happened right where I left last night,” Chris Linder, a shift captain and security officer with S.K. Security, told The Star Saturday. “We all left at 9. I got home and was in bed when it happened.”
S.K. Security officers are operating out of five zones at the Juneteenth celebration, where they are vigilant for suspicious activity, Linder said. Officers are also protecting access to the site from unauthorized vendors.
Linder said on Saturday he was unsure what KCPD’s plans were for security for the event. Several patrol cars were seen at various points across the event space. Anyone needing help can flag down security at the event, Linder said.
Kansas City police officers were on patrol just before 10:30 p.m. near 18th Street and Paseo Boulevard when they heard the sound of gunfire coming from the east, according to Capt. Jake Becchina, a police spokesperson.
On 19th Street between Paseo and Vine, officers found two women with gunshot wounds who were conscious and alert, and one man who was unresponsive, Becchina said.
Paramedics responded and pronounced the man dead at the scene. They also transported the two women to a hospital with injuries police believed to be not life-threatening.
Police identified the man who died as David E. Beck III, 29.
On Saturday morning, as the Juneteenth festival ramped up for the day, dried blood could be seen scattered across several spots in the road. Flowers had been laid next to one such spot. An SUV with a side mirror that was shot out was marked with a police sticker.
Missouri Rep. Michael Johnson told The Star that police quickly responded to Friday’s shooting. But he also said he was concerned that the 18th and Vine area has historically received less attention from law enforcement compared to other parts of the city.
“I think that there’s just a lack of an effort to put enough police officers on Vine and it’s always been that,” he said. “We’ve never really had community policing, ever, south of the river.”
Attorney Henry Service, who has an office on 18th Street in the district, also criticized how police have handled patrolling the area.
“We’ve been complaining about that for years, there’s all kinds of police officers in the city right now,” he said. “We even employed police officers from other states to police the World Cup, right? And for years they have not policed properly in the Jazz District. They just don’t police down there. They don’t care about the district.”
The Star asked the Kansas City Police Department how many officers were assigned to the area during Juneteenth events.
Becchina said Juneteenth activities had ended by 10 p.m. and that the shooting occurred outside the event footprint.
He said officers in the area were working as part of the department’s weekly entertainment district deployment plan, which includes “a couple dozen officers” assigned across entertainment districts on weekends.
Becchina said officers from outside agencies brought in for FIFA World Cup assignments were not assigned to patrol other parts of the city.
He did not provide the number of officers assigned specifically to the 18th and Vine area Friday night.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact homicide unit detectives directly at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline anonymously at 816-474-8477. There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information submitted anonymously to the TIPS hotline.
