360 shots fired from one Kansas City address during New Year’s Eve celebrations
Police lined up 360 spent shell casings on a table. All from bullets fired at one Kansas City address New Year’s Eve, from at least nine guns.
A photo of the collection, posted online, illustrated the city’s problem with illegal celebratory gunfire.
“Despite our pleas and enforcement, despite an 11-year-old girl previously being killed by such behavior and despite the damage it does to property, people continue to engage in celebratory gunfire as 2018 turned to 2019,” Police Chief Rick Smith wrote on his blog, which was published Tuesday.
“This year, as every other year, officers had to take cover around midnight for their protection,” he wrote.
Using the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, police were able to find the address from which the large number of shots were fired.
Police did not release the specific location, but said it was in the East Patrol Division, which is roughly bounded by Prospect Avenue on the west, Swope Parkway/Blue Parkway/52nd Terrace to the south, the city limits on the east and the Missouri River to the north.
Officers in the East Patrol Division recovered an additional 180 shell casings from at least 13 other incidents.
At the East Patrol Division campus at 26th Street and Prospect Avenue, two spent bullets were recovered from the parking spot of division commander Maj. Greg Volker.
Volker said he wasn’t at work at the time, but his staff recovered the bullets from the parking lot and told him when he returned on Jan. 2.
“In all my time on this department, nothing has changed,” he said. “New Years Eve and the Fourth of July are out of control.”
Fortunately, no one used the parking space at that time. It could have had tragic results, he said.
That was the case on July 4, 2011 when 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane was mortally wounded by a stray bullet as she danced on her uncle’s lawn near Riss Lake in east Kansas City. Blair died the next day.
“There are other ways to celebrate,” Volker said. “The use of firearms is a custom we need to change, especially in a city of 500,000 people.”
Police received 301 calls to 911 reporting the sound of gunfire from 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve to 6 a.m. New Year’s Day. The ShotSpotter, which can distinguish between gunfire and fireworks, recorded 109 alerts during the same period, Smith wrote.
Police continue to gather evidence so that they can issue citations to those who illegally discharged firearms on New Year’s Eve. Charges will also be brought against those who cannot legally possess a gun, Smith said.
“New Year’s Eve should be a time of celebration and joy, not hiding in your basement with your children, as one terrified mom tweeted to us she was doing,” Smith wrote.
