2020 is officially deadliest year in Kansas City after victim dies in double shooting

Police are investigating a deadly double shooting late Thursday in Kansas City’s historic Northeast area, which makes 2020 the deadliest year in the city.

Officers responded to the shooting about 10:45 p.m. at a home in the 5200 block of Norledge Avenue, said Officer Doaa El-Ashkar, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department.

Witnesses told officers that they heard gunshots and then found a male and female victim shot inside their home, El-Ashkar said.

Both victims were taken to hospitals, where the male victim was pronounced dead. The female victim had non-life-threatening injuries, El-Ashkar said.

The killing is Kansas City’s 156th of the year, eclipsing the record of 155 homicides reported in 2017, according to statistics tracked by The Star, which includes police shootings. By this time last year, 121 people had been killed in homicides.

Witnesses also told police that they believed the shooter was a man who had been staying with them at the home, she said. The relationships between all of the people who stayed at the home unknown.

Witnesses told detectives that the suspect fled in a vehicle.

Detectives continue to speak with witnesses about what led up to the fatal shooting. Crime scene investigators collected evidence at the scene.

The homicide was the second in the city on Thursday night. Just before 8 p.m., police responded to the Stonegate Meadows apartments in the 10400 block of East 42nd Street on a shooting.

Arriving officers found a man in the hallway suffering from a gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.

Anyone with information about the killings is asked to call the Kansas City Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 8:05 AM.