‘It just scares you’: Pregnant woman, 2-year-old son shot at birthday party in KCK
A young pregnant woman and her 2-year-old son were hospitalized Sunday after being critically injured when gunfire erupted during a fight at a family birthday party at a home in the Armourdale community of Kansas City, Kansas.
The shots were fired shortly after 11 p.m. in the 600 block of South 11th Street, according to police. The injured mom and child had been in an upstairs bedroom when they were shot. The mom was hit twice while the toddler was hit once, according to relatives.
Shaken family members were at the house Sunday, struggling to piece together how a night of joyous celebration could turn into one of terror.
“We were just enjoying and having a nice family party,” said a family member, who wished not to be identified because the shooter had not been arrested.
The night began as a birthday celebration for a family member’s mother. More than 20 relatives, including a lot of children, had gathered in the back yard of the house at the corner of South 11th Street and Shawnee Avenue, family members said.
“We heard a problem or something that started in the alley. From there it got down to the shooting,” a family member said. “Everybody ran inside and we don’t know what happened after that.”
The woman who was injured in the shooting lives in the house. She was upstairs in her bedroom getting ready to go to sleep. When the shots were fired, she went to her open window to see what was happening and was struck by gunfire, family members said.
Her husband was outside at the time of the shooting and looked up to see his wife get hit. He ran into the house and scrambled up the stairs to check on her. Moments later, he returned downstairs carrying his son and continued outside. The father’s shirt was covered in blood, a family member said.
“It just scares you sometimes, you know,” a family member said. “Anything can happen just in a matter of minutes.”
There were a lot of kids at the party, so when the shots were fired there was a scramble to get them inside to safety, a family member said.
“Everything happened so fast,” the family member said. “We didn’t actually realize that her and her son got shot until after everything got settled down.”
Family members said they don’t know who was involved in the fight in the alley or if anyone from the party was involved. Right after the shooting, a car sped away down the alley behind the house.
The mom and son were said to be improving, family members said.
The family hopes police can capture the person responsible. In the meantime, they were waiting for relatives to return to the house to pick up their vehicles that had to be left there while police investigated the shooting.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
