Off-duty officer shoots suspect in leg after gunfire leaves one dead and another hurt
An off-duty Kansas City police officer working private security intervened in a shooting Thursday that left one man dead and another injured, shooting a suspect in the leg, according to police.
Officers responded to the shooting at 2:12 p.m. in the 1400 block of Bellefontaine Avenue, said Capt. Tim Hernandez, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department.
Police identified the victim as Elijah Muhammad, 29.
The off-duty officer was working private security at a business when a citizen told him someone was shooting nearby, Hernandez said. The officer went to the area and saw an armed man shooting at two people, which police described as an aggravated assault.
The officer fired at the armed man, Hernandez said, and shot him in the leg. The injured suspect, who police said was a 31-year-old man, was taken into custody.
Two men who had been shot were found nearby, police said. Investigators said they are thought to have been shot by the armed suspect.
One, a 29-year-old man, was dead. The other, a 51-year-old man, had injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening, police said.
The officer was not injured, police said.
Investigators were unsure where the disturbance began. Detectives were interviewing the officer and witnesses as well as trying to review any video taken in the area, Hernandez said.
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker responded to the crime scene, which stretched a city block.
The fatal shooting marked Kansas City’s 101st homicide this year, according to data kept by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. By this time last year, the city had recorded 95 homicides in a year that ended with 143.
Witness describes shooting
A construction worker, who is not being named by The Star for safety reasons, said he was with a crew nearby when gunfire erupted Thursday afternoon. He said he was standing in the grass, talking with a co-worker and the off-duty officer at Illinois Avenue near 14th Street when he heard multiple shots.
“I turned around and told the officer, ‘They’re shooting!’ He (the officer) looked up, and he reacted so quickly,” the worker said. “He went to the side of the street, got focused on the shooter and took him down.”
The shooter had a “puzzled look” on his face, the worker said, seemingly unaware that an officer was firing shots.
The worker recalled seeing a woman, “screaming for her life,” trying to get away from the shooter.
Hernandez later said in an email to The Star that a female was there with other victims at the time of the shooting. She was not hit by gunfire, police said.
“He (the officer) saved that lady’s life. He saved ours, too,” the worker told The Star.
“That cop is a hero.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we did this story
When The Star became aware of the shooting Thursday, two reporters and a photographer went to the scene while one reporter remained at the newsroom to gather information, call nearby businesses and homeowners, and publish the story online. Reporters interviewed police officials at the scene.
This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 3:40 PM.
