Kansas City mayor, police chief, urge against celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve
Last New Year’s Eve in Kansas City, a bullet pierced through a home in the 5100 block of Osage Avenue.
The small piece of metal plowed through a wall just inches from where a couple was sleeping, Kansas City police tweeted Thursday morning.
“Miraculously, no one was hurt,” the department said.
As it does at the end of many years, the Kansas City Police Department on Thursday warned against ringing in the new year with gunfire.
“This type of gunfire is 100% able to be prevented,” Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said. “All we need is some community cooperation.”
Last year, police found 360 spent shell casings fired from at least nine guns at one Kansas City address alone.
In 2018, the department’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection system received notice of 112 gunfire activations from 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve through 6 a.m. New Year’s Day.
On New Year’s Eve of 2019, ShotSpotter detected 216 gunfire activations, almost double the year prior.
Despite the increase in detected shootings, police only received about 300 calls each year regarding possible shots fired from community members.
Sgt. Jake Becchina, a department spokesman, asked community members to call 911 if they see someone shooting. He reminded that bullets, once fired up, come back down at a similar velocity, making them deadly.
On July 4, 2011, 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane was mortally wounded by a stray bullet as she danced on her uncle’s lawn near Riss Lake in east Kansas City. Blair died the next day.
Mayor Quinton Lucas, who grew up in Kansas City, recalled sleeping on the floor on New Year’s Eve and Independence Day because of the higher risk of stray celebratory bullets in some neighborhoods.
He pleaded for Kansas Citians to ask family and friends to think twice about the shooting into the air.
“Tell them not to,” Lucas said Thursday morning. “Tell them to chill on that sort of thing — hopefully forever — but really tonight make sure that people can be safe.”
