Video shows crowded Southwest Boulevard, car stunts before KC shooting left woman dead
Before gunfire broke out Wednesday night on Southwest Boulevard, leaving a woman dead and another wounded, a crowd of people gathered to watch car stunts performed in the street, video from the event shows.
A series of videos uploaded to Snapchat from the 2600 block of Southwest Boulevard shows spectators cheering as a person waves a flag in the middle of the street and a pickup and a sedan spin in circles, smoke rising from their tires. Dozens, if not hundreds, of people were in the crowd, according to Kansas City police.
Other scenes from the video show more pickups doing burnouts and doughnuts. In one, some people shuffle around near the front of a moving truck and one person dodges the rear of the truck just before it swings around.
Officers responded to the scene about 11 p.m. after someone fired multiple shots from a vehicle into the crowd, said Sgt. Jacob Becchinna, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department.
Officers saw numerous cars leaving the area. Witnesses directed them to two shooting victims who were lying on the sidewalk.
Emergency medical crews rushed the victims to a hospital, where one of them died. The other victim’s injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said on Twitter that prior to the shooting he received a text message from a resident in the area asking if Southwest Boulevard had been closed.
“Authorities were made aware right before shooting but appears to be a large street gathering that shut down the area proceeding the incident,” Lucas said.
Jorge Coromac, director of the Westside Community Action Network, said he received nine calls and texts Wednesday night from Westside residents first concerned about the noisy crowd, and then about the gunshots.
The network, a nonprofit which Coromac, 48, describes as focusing on community policing, volunteerism and community outreach, often fields calls from concerned residents.
One caller told Coromac they heard as many as 15 shots, but others heard fewer, attributing the other loud bangs to fireworks.
“The noise and stuff I didn’t hear until neighbors called me and said, ‘It started again, what happened the other night,’” said Barbara Bailey, a member of the network’s board who lives near Southwest Boulevard. A similar event unfolded Saturday, she said.
Bailey, 71, said she’d heard about issues with street racing in Wyandotte County, but this is the first time in her neighborhood.
“Why in the world are you doing this on a public street and endangering lives like that?” she asked Thursday. “What’s going on?”
In an interview, Lucas said his heart goes out to the woman who died and her family, as well as to the other woman who was injured. The homicide victim has not been identified publicly.
“It is disappointing, dramatic, all of those adjectives that I can think of,” he said, noting that killings are up this year.
Lucas said he has received more calls and messages from Westside neighbors concerning the “street race show” and others in recent weeks that have led to violence, including one in Swope Park.
Earlier this month, six people were injured when shots were fired into a group of people gathered at Swope Park for what some media reported was a sideshow, an illegal, informal demonstration of car stunts often held in parking lots and at intersections.
The city needs to look at the way it handles street parties, street festivals and other unpermitted gatherings to avoid tragedies, Lucas said. Every year, the city loses in excess of 10 people at those type of events.
“We need to address it,” Lucas said. “I would like to see those numbers go down.”
In a Facebook post, a local truck club said its event Wednesday, a Mexico Independence Day cruise, began in Kansas City, Kansas, and ended on Southwest Boulevard. The club said the “tragic incident” came after their event, adding that their group had “nothing” to do with what unfolded.
“People can’t keep the violence at home and that resulted in someone getting hurt,” according to the group, Exclusivos Truck Club.
In a post before the cruise, the club called the event family-friendly and told participants that no burnouts were allowed during it. The club did not respond to a Facebook message Thursday.
Lucas said every summer, Kansas City sees challenges with people hanging around outside bars and clubs.
“It just seems like it’s increased this summer and I think last night’s event is an example of that,” he said.
Asked if the city would be open to giving racers a space to operate legally, something some community members have called for, Lucas said the city does not have “all the property in the world.”
“We don’t have all the money in the world; we don’t have all the liability insurance in the world,” he said. “That’s something that needs to be some level of conversation. But no, I can’t just say standing here I’ve got a gigantic parking lot to give away to somebody.”
Becchina said the police department received at least one 911 call reporting a large gathering blocking the street prior to the shooting. He didn’t immediately give an exact number of calls.
The video posted to social media shows a RideKC bus trying to slowly pass through as a crowd of people with cellphones in hand. At least one person waves it on.
On Thursday morning, black tire track circles could be seen in the middle of the road. Nearby were other circles from events that workers from area businesses said took place earlier in the week.
Jason Quirarte, owner of Margarita’s restaurant on Southwest Boulevard, a couple blocks from where the shooting unfolded, said the two sideshows in the past week were the first times there was an issue with them taking over the street near his business.
He hopes it’s the last time.
“It’s usually peaceful,” said Quirarte, 42. “This just kind of gives us a bad look. ... It’s just something else for people to worry about, which they don’t need.”
The killing Wednesday was Kansas City’s 146th homicide this year, according to data kept by The Star, which includes police shootings. That compares to 113 killings by this time last year.
The fatal shooting also marked the 208th homicide across the metro this year.
Police asked anyone with information about the killing to call detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
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 Luke Nozicka and Cortlynn Stark contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 11:26 AM.
