Overnight shooting on Independence Avenue leaves 1 dead, 1 injured in Kansas City
A female was killed and a male was wounded in a shooting late Monday in Kansas City, police said.
Officers were called around 11:15 p.m. to a shooting in the 2400 block of Independence Avenue, said Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokeswoman with the Kansas City Police Department.
Police found the two victims on a sidewalk on the south side of the road. The female, whose name and age have not yet been publicly identified, was declared dead at the scene, Becchina said.
The male was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police believe the victims were shot by an unknown suspect, Becchina said.
Including Monday’s victim, seven people have been killed within a couple blocks of this stretch of Independence Avenue this year, according to homicide data kept by The Star.
On Nov. 1, officers were called to homicide about two blocks west of Tuesday’s scene, at the intersection of Independence and Monroe avenues, where they found a man suffering from gunshot wounds near a sidewalk. He was later declared dead at the scene.
In July, a man was found fatally shot on the porch of an apartment building in the 3500 block of Independence Avenue.
One night in early June, a man was shot on the sidewalk in the 3400 block of Independence Avenue, about two blocks west of Sunday’s crime scene. The victim, Emmit Martin, 33, died at the hospital.
That same month, 51-year-old Hoang Dinh was declared a homicide victim after he was found dead from a head injury about two blocks northwest of where Sunday’s scene was taped off.
In May, Marvin A. Lorthridge, 38, was found fatally shot one block south of Sunday’s scene. In April, Anna Velazquez, 35, was believed to be fatally shot by her husband about two blocks south of where Sunday’s shooting happened.
Anyone with information about Monday’s killing is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
The homicide is Kansas City’s 167th homicide of the year, according to data kept by The Star, which includes police shootings. That compares to 153 homicides reported in all of 2019.
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.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 7:52 AM.
