Police investigate homicide at KC gas station, the city’s fifth homicide in two days
Police are investigating a homicide reported Thursday night at a Kansas City gas station.
Officers were called at 10:07 p.m. to the Conoco at 35th and Prospect Avenue, said Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department.
They found a man who was shot in the parking lot. He was declared dead at the scene.
Becchina said a large, “unruly” crowd gathered near the scene and two people were detained. One was making threats to an officer and the other tried to go through the police line and into the crime scene.
“We don’t want there to be shootings, we don’t want there to be homicides,” he said. “We’re here trying to bring justice to this family, to this young man that has died at this gas station tonight and it’s frustrating that the community should be fired up. The community should be fired up trying to help us out and we’re not exactly seeing that right now.”
The man’s death marks the 101st homicide this year in Kansas City.
At this time last year, the city had seen 68 homicides, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes police shootings.
Kansas City is on pace for its deadliest year on record.
The 100th homicide came earlier Thursday when police responded to reports of a man who was waving a gun at a McDonald’s at 31st and Van Brunt Blvd.
When the man fled, police chased him. Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said the man turned and fired at officers. One officer was struck. A second officer fired back and fatally wounded the man.
The injured officer, who had been shot in the head, went into emergency surgery. Shortly before 10 p.m., Becchina said he was in the intensive care unit in stable condition.
“We had an unbelievably emotionally draining day today,” he said at the scene of the homicide at the gas station. “As it sits right now we’re dangling on the edge of a really challenging time.”
Earlier Thursday, three people were injured — a police officer, a bus driver and an alleged robbery suspect — in another police shooting at Independence and Hardesty avenues.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said he was “heartbroken and disgusted” by violence in the city after the two incidents where officers were injured.
On Wednesday, police responded to three homicides.
Becchina urged anyone with information about the man’s death at the gas station to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 11:32 PM.
