Shooting leaves man dead Sunday night east of Plaza during protests in Kansas City
A man was fatally shot Sunday night in Kansas City’s Midtown neighborhood, about two blocks from where demonstrators protested police killings, racism and other issues throughout the afternoon.
Officers responded to the shooting at Warwick Boulevard and East 46th Street, the Kansas City Police Department posted on Twitter at 10:52 p.m. Police said it was unclear if the shooting was related to the “civil unrest.”
The man suffered life-threatening injuries, police initially said. In an update after 11:20 p.m., police said he had died.
A nearby woman said she heard two pops and thought they were fireworks, but soon learned they were not.
She saw the man lying on the ground and went to find police. She told them someone needed help, that she wasn’t joking.
The intersection where officers responded was about two blocks from where demonstrators marched on Main Street after police fired tear gas on them. Police said they deployed the chemical agent after water bottles were thrown at officers.
During an 11 p.m. news briefing, Capt. David Jackson, a Kansas City police spokesman, said the shooting did not involve police.
“We are working on that right now,” he said. “It just occurred in the last 10 or 15 minutes.”
The killing was being investigated as a homicide, at least the 73rd this year in Kansas City. By this time last year, there had been 57 killings, according data maintained by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings.0
At a news briefing about the protests roughly an hour earlier, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city already had enough violence.
“We don’t need more now,” he said.
This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 11:10 PM.
