In addition to homicides, nonfatal shootings in Kansas City are on uptick from 2019
Dozens of more people have been wounded by gunfire this year in Kansas City than were by this time in 2019, another grim figure in a city also suffering from a spike in killings.
This year at least 268 people have been shot and survived as of Friday afternoon. That is compared to 197 non-fatal shooting victims reported this time last year, police Maj. Doug Niemeier told City Council members Thursday.
Eighty-four of those shot this year were injured in May — an average of 2.7 a day.
The number of people who have survived gunshot wounds this year has almost matched that in all of 2014, when 290 people were wounded. Since then, each year in Kansas City has ended with 414 to 506 living gunshot victims, according to police data.
This month, police have reported 20 non-fatal shooting victims in Kansas City through June 7. For the same period a year ago, there were 15 non-fatal shooting victims, according to police.
In one recent shooting in the city’s historical 18th and Vine district, Niemeier told the council members, investigators found some 50 or more shell casings that were fired from seven different guns.
The number of people killed in Kansas City is also up this year compared to recent years.
As of Thursday afternoon, 83 people have been slain in the city, according to data compiled by The Star, which includes fatal law enforcement shootings. That included eight homicides in the first eight days of June.
There had been 61 homicides by this time last year, according to The Star’s data. That’s 22 fewer than this year.
By this time in 2018, there had been 51 killings — 32 fewer than this year. Compared to 2017, there were 64 by June 12.
In a Facebook live interview Thursday with Star columnists Melinda Henneberger and Toriano Porter, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker noted that more people have been killed this year in Kansas City than in all of 2014.
“It’s beyond discouraging to say where we are at his moment in time in Kansas City,” Baker said.
In January, Kansas City police have begun conducting weekly shooting reviews, as a way to solve more of those crimes.
The initiative is loosely modeled after a Milwaukee police practice. In Kansas City, the shooting reviews include members from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Shooting reviews have been credited with solving more non-fatal shootings in other cities.
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 June 12, 2020 at 4:02 PM.
