Triple shooting reported in Westport area as police respond to rolling gun battle
Kansas City police were investigating a shooting that left three people injured in the Westport area Wednesday afternoon.
Police were in the area of West 40th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in the Midtown Kansas City entertainment district when they heard multiple gunshots, according to Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman.
The officers found two vehicles with occupants shooting at each other nearby. The vehicles drove away, still firing.
Both vehicles crashed near West 40th Street and Southwest Trafficway, and all of the occupants ran away, police said.
Officers found a shooting victim near 40th and Pennsylvania who appeared to be an “unintended victim,” Becchina wrote in an email about the incident.
Two other shooting victims were found near the crashed vehicles. One was a teenage juvenile and the other was an adult.
None of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening.
All of the other people who fled the crash scene were detained by police, Becchina said.
Mayor Quinton Lucas posted a message on Twitter, saying he was disappointed to hear of the shooting.
“Makes clear why we also need to expand who we talk to,” Lucas wrote. “For meeting our crime grp first mtg, I’m asking those who have been in and out of trouble, who have been victims & assailants to participate in helping.”
The incident in Westport comes after Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith wrote a blog post saying that officers had responded seven shootings in a period of nine hours the night before.
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 3:55 PM.
