Man killed in shooting near 18th and Vine was new father, family says. No arrests made
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- David Beck, 29, was fatally shot around 19th and Vine during gunfire.
- Five other people were injured in the shooting, including one man critically wounded.
- Police had made no arrests as of Wednesday; investigators had no updates by Monday.
When asked about her favorite memories with her stepson, Tiffini Beck didn’t know where to start.
“I mean, there’s just so many,” she said.
David Eugene Beck III was in kindergarten when Tiffini Beck married his father. She remembered a child who loved to skateboard and wore shorts in the winter.
She remembered a man who was “loved by everybody.”
On Tuesday, Tiffini Beck stood with dozens of other loved ones outside the Buck O’Neil Education & Research Center at a prayer vigil for David Beck, who was fatally shot just outside Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine District Friday.
David Eugene Beck III
Photos of David Beck lined the pitcher’s mound outside the research center as loved ones wrote messages on balloons spelling “29,” David Beck’s age at the time of his death.
Prayer candles flickered, balloons swayed in the wind and a bottle of tequila was poured in a circle as loved ones remembered the 29-year-old, who Tiffini Beck said was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“He’s not the monster that all the comments online, that everybody’s reading, I don’t know where they’re… if you knew David, you know that’s not David,” Tiffini Beck said.
David Beck and five others were in the area of 19th and Vine streets around 10:30 p.m. Friday when several people opened fire in different directions. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
As of Wednesday, police had made no arrests in the case.
A ‘gentle giant’
Family members remember David Beck as a quiet, hardworking, “gentle giant” who deeply loved his family and playing video games in his free time. He recently became a father, welcoming a baby girl four months prior to his death.
“He was going through a hard time in life and [was] just out with friends,” Tiffini Beck said. “Worked all day long.”
Five others were injured in the shooting.
Kansas City Police Department officers were patrolling in the area when they heard gunfire, according to department spokesperson Capt. Jake Becchina.
On 19th Street, between Paseo and Vine, officers found Beck and two women suffering from gunshot wounds, Becchina said. Beck was pronounced dead at the scene. The two women were transported to a hospital with injuries that police did not think were life-threatening.
At the scene, investigators were notified that three additional shooting victims, two men and one woman, arrived at a hospital in a private vehicle, Becchina said. One of the men was in critical condition Friday.
A friend also injured
Ashley Beck, whose husband was David Beck’s cousin, said the man in critical condition was a close friend to David Beck. On Tuesday, she said the man was recovering.
Detectives believe the shooting, which happened just blocks away from Kansas City’s annual Juneteenth celebration, occurred as people were standing along 19th Street.
A similar shooting occurred in the area after last year’s Juneteenth celebration. The suspect in that case, Leonard Holman, was charged under Blair’s Law, which bans celebratory gunfire in Missouri.
Friday’s shooting happened after security officers in the area for the Juneteenth celebration left for the evening.
Local leaders and business owners have since called out a yearslong battle for stronger police presence in the 18th and Vine area.
“I think that there’s just a lack of an effort to put enough police officers on Vine and it’s always been that,” Missouri Rep. Michael Johnson said. “We’ve never really had community policing, ever, south of the river.”
“We’ll fight to our last day to make it right,” Tiffini Beck said. “No matter what.”
The Star’s Kendrick Calfee and Nathan Pilling contributed.
