Kansas City had seven homicides in five days. One was an 18-year-old shot Sunday
Five consecutive days of fatal shootings in Kansas City have left seven people dead in what police say has been a particularly violent week.
Among the first of the victims was 18-year-old Mauricia Strother, found shot in a vehicle Sunday morning in the 8000 block of Michigan Avenue. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died Wednesday. A neighbor’s home security camera captured the sound of a dozen gunshots.
In the next several days, more shootings followed: a homicide outside some lofts downtown, a fatal police shooting Tuesday night and on Wednesday two men allegedly killed by one shooter. Three homicides were also reported this week in Johnson County.
“This has been a particularly difficult and violent week,” Capt. David Jackson, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman, said in an email.
Overall, homicides are up this year in Kansas City compared with last year.
There have been 60 killings so far in 2020, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes police shootings. At this time last year, there were 48.
Late last year, local leaders vowed to take action and the police department implemented changes including increasing the number of detectives dedicated to investigating shootings.
Jackson said Thursday that a crime reduction initiative introduced last year has shown promise. The program uses geographic information to show where a crime is most likely to occur. Some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods have seen a 24% drop in crime.
But the homicide rate continues to outpace last year’s alarming numbers.
With 151 slayings in 2019, Kansas City neared its record of 155 homicides set in 2017.
“Nothing that we’ve done yet has been effective enough,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said. “I mean that for me the mayor, I mean that for the police department, I mean that for the prosecutor, everybody who’s involved. If we’re still seeing the same types of things, then no it’s not enough.”
Ten lives lost
This string of violence started Saturday with a triple shooting.
On Saturday, three people were shot in the 2300 block of Van Brunt Boulevard. One man, identified as Terence Rodgers, died that day. A second man, Frederick Tolbert died Wednesay. Both of the men were 24 years old. The third victim, a juvenile, was released from the hospital earlier this week.
Strother’s shooting followed on Sunday, and a day later police responded to the Cold Storage Lofts at 500 East Third Street. Charles Shirley, 41, was found in a vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
On Tuesday, a seven-mile police chase that began in Independence came to an end at East 9th and Monroe in Kansas City when an officer shot the driver, who was later identified as William Shimp, 34.
On Wednesday, two people were killed in shootings that occurred minutes apart. Cleveland Fuller III, 26, was shot at a gas station at 5401 Winner Road. Michael L. Groves, 42, was shot at an an apartment building in the 5300 block of Williamsburg Court. Matthew D. Harris was charged with two counts of second-degree murder Thursday.
In Overland Park on Sunday, a shootout left a police officer dead. Michael Mosher was a 14 1/2 year veteran of the Overland Park Police Department. The suspect was also killed. He was identified as Phillip Michael Carney, 38.
On Tuesday, 18-year-old Kiven Maquial was shot dead in Prairie Village.
That homicide is still under investigation.
One life remembered
The family of Strother, the 18-year-old shot Sunday, has struggled with her sudden death.
“People are really hurt,” her mother Marielle Strother said.
Strother recalled that even when Mauricia was a baby and would keep her up at night, she didn’t mind. She would stare at her daughter’s face and think “I had the beautifulist baby I’ve ever seen in my life.” Mauricia was her only child.
As a kid, Mauricia was shy, but enjoyed tap dancing and ballet. After attending Acadèmie Lafayette where she learned French, she went on to Paseo Academy.
As Mauricia grew up, she became more outgoing.
“She was a leader and lots of girls flocked to her so she had lots of friends as she got older,” Strother said. “They were fashionistas. My daughter never left without a purse.”
Mauricia was taking online courses this year and wanted to attend college to study journalism.
“She could tell a story,” her mother said.
No arrests have been made in her killing.
“I just want justice served as much as it can be served,” Strother said. ”I had dreams of being a grandmother and I’m robbed.”
Response to violence
Jackson, the police spokesman, said it’s unclear if any of the recent homicides are related to the coronavirus pandemic or social distancing policies that have been put into place in recent weeks.
But local leaders expressed dismay that the shootings have continued during the city’s stay-at-home orders.
“We’re trying to be safe and people are still out killing each other,” said Rosilyn Temple, founder of the Kansas Chapter of Mothers in Charge.
Lucas said he has been frustrated by the violence.
“I have been incredibly distressed by the fact that even as our city has been shut down for going on almost two months, we continue to see a steady pace of violent crime,” he said.
In the coming days, Lucas will announce appointments to a task force that will study violent crime and the police department.
“We need to continue to find ways to intervene in I think this epidemic of violent crime,” he said.
The city’s legislative priorities include increasing resources for witness protection and mental health services.
Lucas said his message to the community was simple: “Put the guns down.”
Last year, Kansas City passed ordinances that restrict handguns from minors and domestic abusers. But Lucas said more need to be done to get illegal weapons off the streets.
“I don’t want us to get out of a pandemic and just return our gaze to an epidemic, but it looks like that’s the position we’re going to be in,” he said. “But at the same way we’re trying to fight COVID real quickly now, we need to have that same passion for gun violence in our city.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 5:38 PM.
