Neighbors want out after 2nd double shooting at south KC complex: ‘Traumatized’
Upon first glance, you couldn’t tell that The Depot on Old Santa Fe apartments in south Kansas City has been the center of multiple homicides within 16 days. It’s made up of neat, gray-painted buildings, featuring outdoor amenities like a playground and a pool.
After Saturday night’s shooting that left two dead, neighbors are voicing their frustrations — and fears — as the community reels from another shooting that has left two more teenagers dead.
At this spot in the 9200 block of Old Santa Fe Road, 16-year-old Brandon Henderson and 18-year-old Dillion Boykin died after a shooting June 27.
According to the Kansas City Police department, Boykin was found unresponsive before being transferred to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Henderson was taken to a local hospital in a private vehicle before he was pronounced dead.
He was assisted by Saraeya Crowell, a neighbor who was woken by gunfire and screaming Saturday night. Though she had never met Henderson before, she encountered his mom outside with him after the shooting. They put Henderson in his mother’s car and sped to a local hospital.
Crowell said Henderson was responsive when they were in the car. She stayed with his mother in the hospital for hours. That was when they received the news that Henderson had died.
“I stayed up until like 5 in the morning. Because I was just like... ‘what the f--?” she said. “I just feel so bad. ... We did all of that, trying to rush him to the hospital, and he didn’t make it, you know? We were driving so fast.”
Crowell and Carlos Santana told The Star that they heard a “spray of bullets,” suggesting a machine gun or a gun with a switch device was used in the shooting. Santana was visiting his sister’s apartment when the shooting occurred.
On a building near where the shooting occurred, bullet holes were seen on its facade, including a crack in an apartment window. The tenant of the unit with the cracked window did not want to be interviewed by The Star, but said, “we are traumatized.”
In its short time, The Depot apartments already has a violent history
It’s only been a month since Crowell has lived in the apartment near where the shooting happened. She and another neighbor said they already want out following Saturday night’s deadly incident.
“There’s no security over here. They just moved anybody in cause it’s income based,” Crowell said. “It’s a whole bunch of young people with guns, and they just don’t care about people. (On Saturday) I parked my car over there, and it’s just a whole bunch of dudes just sitting outside with guns. And it’s just like, for what?”
The first week she moved into her apartment was the same week the first June shooting at The Depot occurred. That was when 17-year-old Rontez Donahue and 18-year-old Dion Charles Marshall Sims-Bey died. One man was taken into custody following that incident.
The two shootings happened on different sides of the complex, yet both tragedies nearly mirror each other. Both shootings involving multiple males being killed, and all of them under the age of 19.
One neighbor said that the apartment complex is relatively new, bringing in tenants around September of last year.
When The Star arrived at the apartments Sunday, the main gate to enter was open for anyone to go in and out. Crowell said the gate is broken and that it’s the only way for folks to get in and out of the complex. There’s also no cameras near where the shooting occurred.
There’s no indication that the two shootings were connected to one another. Santana hopes that’s not the case, and he hopes that there are some regulations being put into place to protect residents like his sister before things get worse.
“I think we all need to get together and try to figure it out, and I think they should have some kind of apartment committee or something to make sure everybody’s in good standing and nothing happens,” Santana said. “And people watch out for each other, so it won’t happen again. Because if they don’t care, it’s gonna get a worse.”
