Man shot to death during robbery while walking home from Westport area

A gunman fatally shot a 24-year-old man walking home from the Westport area late Sunday in what appears to have been a robbery in Midtown Kansas City.

Kansas City police identified the victim Monday as Zachary Pearce.

Pearce lived in apartment in the 100 block of East 40^th Street, close to where police found his body. By Monday night, about two dozen people gathered outside for a candlelight vigil at 40th and Walnut streets where Pearce was shot. Bouquets of flowers left for Pearce were placed in a bucket on a sidewalk outside an apartment building near the intersection.

Ceirra McGhghy, a friend who was at the vigil Monday night, said she met Pearce while she worked at a pet shop a few years ago.

“When I first started working there, I was really shy. I didn’t really talk to very many people, and Zach just kind of got that and was OK with it and started to bring me out of my shell a little bit, got me used to talking to people,” McGhghy said. “ I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I hadn’t met him because it would make me so anxious.”

Corissa Nohrenberg said her cousin, Pearce, was a bright young man and strongly opinionated. Nohrenberg described Pearce as someone who always tried to find answers and do the right thing.

“I miss him so much and I can’t believe that it’s gone and he’s ascended to a farther place,” Nohrenberg said. “I think that his life will be lived on through our cherished memories and our best times.”

Pearce died late Sunday night after he and a friend were robbed, police said.

Police responded shortly before midnight Sunday to the 100 block of East 40th Street on reports of an outside disturbance and shots fired.

While police were en route, the call was updated to a shooting. Arriving officers found the Pearce’s body lying in the street near 40th and Walnut Street, just one block east of Main Street.

Pearce was one of two men in their 20s who were walking home from a night out in Westport.

A dark colored, possibly maroon, SUV pulled up along side the men and one of the people inside the vehicle pulled out a gun and demanded the victims’ phones and wallets.

Both robbery victims complied, but the robber fired a shot striking and killing one of the men. The other man was not injured.

The gunman fled in the vehicle with at least two others inside, according to police. Police said the suspect vehicle was last seen driving east from the scene and then south on Warwick Boulevard.

Talking to a group of reporters Monday night, McGhghy said she was shocked by the news of his death. Friends and family members are asking anyone with information about the shooting to come forward to police.

“There are just so many questions because it doesn’t make sense to me, none of it,” McGhghy said during the vigil. “I can’t see why anybody would do that.”

Anyone with information about the homicide or the SUV is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

The fatal shooting is Kansas City’s 134th homicide for the year.

This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 7:26 AM with the headline "Man shot to death during robbery while walking home from Westport area."