18th and Vine asked KCPD for police protection. Instead they got another homicide
At this year’s Juneteenth celebration in Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District, Stacie Minor noticed there was no police presence.
Minor knew that two weeks before the June 20 event, a shooting there left one man dead and four others injured.
“Wow, ain’t one officer out here,” Minor, 43, said as she looked around. “Not one.”
Hours later, after the event was over and most of the local businesses closed for the night, two young men were shot, one of them killed.
In Minor’s view, had police been around it might not have happened.
In fact, several local business owners had their own fears around safety leading up to the event and had tried to be proactive. They attempted to pool their money for off-duty police patrols ahead of the weekend, but they couldn’t afford it.
Instead, they asked police for protection that Saturday.
“People don’t shoot people in front of the police, no matter how hardcore you are,” said attorney Henry Service, who owns the nearby Lincoln Building. “Show up and be a presence. I’m not saying beat people up and kill them or roust them. Just be there after-hours when there’s hundreds of people just sitting in the parking lot drinking.”
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith at a virtual town hall Wednesday said officers did drive past the Juneteenth event. Everything was fine at the time, he said, noting that the recent violence has played out after events were mostly cleared out for the night.
In the days after the shooting at 18th and Vine, which remains unsolved, residents and business owners packed public meetings to ask why police weren’t there.
Some want more officers in the district. Minor said in the past seven years she can count on one hand how many times she’s seen one patrolling 18th and Vine.
Others said more police wasn’t the answer and instead called for private security. One woman said the solution lies with the community’s elders taking to the streets themselves.
While people in the district all want to be secure in their homes and businesses, they don’t want to be over-policed or victims of police brutality. It’s a bind many Black Americans have found themselves in over the years.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said on a typical Saturday in Kansas City, the police department’s resources are strained.
“You can’t just have a police department fix every problem in this city,” Lucas said Friday after a meeting with law enforcement and 18th and Vine community members. Lucas said the future of 18th and Vine also lies in those willing to invest in the community through public works and economic development.
“Every day when I see something happen, I’m disappointed in the fact that we haven’t been able to improve things faster, make people safer,” Lucas said.
Major Ryan Mills, who attended Friday’s meeting along with other members of the police department, said sometimes claims that police are not around 18th and Vine enough are correct.
“We can always do a better job no matter who we are,” Mills said. “We’re here to serve the community, and if the community doesn’t feel like they’re being served in the way that they want to be served, then tell us about it.”
‘We’re tired of begging’
Tiara Taylor-Dixon runs Smaxx restaurant near the corner of 19th and Vine. In the three years she’s lived in the district, she’s called 911 during shootings, fashioned tourniquets and carried wounded men to the hospital.
Taylor-Dixon moved to the Jazz District hoping it would nourish her business as she pursued her American dream. But it’s been hard to find success with so much violence happening in the neighborhood.
“Sadly, I’ve been let down,” she said.
Steven Addison, 61, has lived a block from that intersection for five years, and estimates there have been at least five killings and about a dozen shootings in that time.
He doesn’t often see police in the neighborhood.
“If you walk downtown you’re going to see 100 cops down there. If you come down here, you’re not going to see no cops,” he said. “What’s the difference between us and downtown, Power & Light? . . . I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Black neighborhood or what.”
To make up for the lack police at the Juneteenth event, Taylor-Dixon hired private security for her restaurant.
It was after the private security left that the two men were shot.
Marcus Stone, 22, was declared dead where he lay in a city-owned parking lot across from Henry Service’s Lincoln Building. The other man survived.
It was about the same time of night and in the same area two weeks earlier that 27-year-old Montel Ridley was killed in a shooting that also hospitalized three other men and a woman.
“How many more bodies is it going to take for us to bring some real recognition down here?” Taylor-Dixon asked.
Until there is a solution, she said, everything is on the line. Lives. Businesses. Reputation.
“We’re not asking for too much, but we’re tired of begging,” Taylor-Dixon said.
‘They choose not to patrol this’
So many neighborhood residents and business owners showed up to the 18th and Vine Development Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday morning at the Black Archives of Mid-America that they had to create an overflow room.
During the nearly three-hour long meeting, the committee, formed by Lucas, announced a proposal to secure funding for six to eight off-duty officers or private security to patrol 18th and Vine on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. through October.
Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, who represents the Third District, co-chaired the meeting with Carmaletta Williams, executive director of the Black Archives of Mid-America. Third District at-large Councilman Brandon Ellington, local barber and business owner Joseph “Joey Cuts” Thomas and Keslie Spottsville, board director of the Black Archives of Mid-America, were also present. Attorney Lauren Allen, Acting City Manager Earnest Rouse and Lucas also sit on the committee, but were not in attendance Tuesday.
About a dozen people took the microphone to make public comments.
“A blind man can notice, they choose not to patrol this,” Walter “The Popper” Edwin rapped before the committee.
“Heard gunshots like oh no. Less than five minute seen 20-something po pos. But can’t get them down here to patrol tho. But Plaza, P&L and Westport is up for sure go … Ya’ll could allocate a lot of cash. I’m speaking up for that kid inside a body bag. But the system is quite wicked. They show up ready when it’s time to write tickets.”
Many at the meeting agreed: 18th and Vine doesn’t get its share of police protection.
But some weren’t sure they ultimately wanted more police to patrol the predominantly Black neighborhood.
“With all due respect to KCPD, I am not a proponent of KCPD policing my community,” said Shelia Johnson, owner of Gangsta Goodies Kitchen, who has lived in the Third District since 1999. “History has taught us what happens in our community when we’re over-policed.”
She fears police brutality and police killings.
Johnson suggested the community’s elders take to the streets, only calling police if they come across a situation they can’t resolve themselves.
Plus, she said, she’ll feed anyone who volunteers for her proposed patrol effort.
Thomas, the barber, said a friend stopped him after Tuesday’s meeting to caution him about using the word “policing.” It could scare other potential clientele off.
“We already have a lot of hardships that we’re facing,” Thomas said. “I don’t think we can afford the fact of a police injustice taking place at 18th and Vine which can possibly lead to protests, vandalism and a bunch of other things.”
Past policing of 18th and Vine
In the past, the city has paid off-duty officers to patrol 18th and Vine late at night. But that hasn’t happened since October 2018.
Sgt Jacob Becchina, a Kansas City police spokesman, confirmed Thursday that the department received a request for additional police presence at the Juneteenth event.
When such a request is received, the department “should make it a point to provide an extra presence when possible,” Bechhina said.
On-duty officers who periodically drove past the event said it seemed to be going well. A Juneteenth event organizer later told the department she wished more officers had been present to write tickets that night, since people were parking all through the area.
Deputy Chief Karl Oakman was asked at the meeting Tuesday about any need for surveillance cameras in the Jazz District.
He said 14 city-owned cameras and a number of license plate readers are strategically placed around the district. Most of them are tied to a 24-hour real-crime center.
But no arrests have yet been made in either fatal shooting this month in the historic district.
Late last week, Councilwoman Robinson received approval for the city to fund four off-duty officers at 18th and Vine Friday and Saturday night. She is working on approval for $48,000 to be allocated toward off-duty officers or private security for the remainder of the weekends through October.
Without that, the business owners in the 18th and Vine District would be again left to consider how to hire off-duty officers themselves.
Service, the attorney who owns the Lincoln Building, said it seems unfair that the district, which pays taxes, would have to pay extra for policing.
“Why do we have to pay for private security when everyone else is getting it for free or they have a CID [Community Improvement District] to help them pay for it?” Service asked.
Robinson and other 18th and Vine committee members are trying to expedite an application for a CID program, which Robinson hopes can provide consistent funding for policing or security.
The mayor on Friday said he embraces this effort.
“Yes, there will likely have to be an enhanced off-duty presence, but we want to make sure that that off-duty presence is one where we’ve communicated with the business ownership in the area, where there’s community collaboration, where folks know what’s wanted,” Lucas said.
“Because we also don’t want to have the flipside with somebody saying, ‘oh you’re over-policing an area.’ This is the balance and the tension that everybody has now.”
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 and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this report.
