1 dead, 3 injured in shooting Sunday near Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine district
Update: Police on Tuesday identified the victim as 34-year-old Gary Taylor.
A shooting late Sunday near Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine district left one person dead and three others injured, police said.
Officers were called just after 10 p.m. to the area of 18th and Vine streets on a call of gunshots, and later a shooting, Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email in the hours after the shooting.
When police arrived, they found four shootings victims at 19th and Vine streets, Drake said.
EMS at the scene started performing life-saving measures on one of the victims, a man, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later, she said.
The three other adult victims were also taken to the hospital, Drake said. They are believed to have injuries that are not life-threatening.
“Preliminary information at the scene is there was a fight or argument inside one of establishments,” Drake said. “Shortly after the argument, there were multiple shots fired outside the business.”
None of the victims have been publicly identified as of Monday morning. No suspect information was immediately available. It was not clear if the victim who died was involved in the argument.
“It’s senseless,” Drake told reporters at the scene. “This is inexcusable. There is no reason for this. People should be able to come out and enjoy their evening and not have it end with someone losing their life in senseless gun violence.”
The killing marks the 48th homicide in Kansas City this year. Kansas City ended last year with 182 homicides, the most in the city’s history in a single year, according to data maintained by The Star.
“Disappointed and angered to hear of more Kansas Citians struck by gunfire tonight,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who lives in the area, wrote on Twitter Sunday night. “This evening it’s in my neighborhood, but too many have been impacted just this weekend, this year, and in recent years. Praying for the victims, continuing to work to see an end to this epidemic.”
Early Sunday morning, a man was found shot to death in his car near East 29th Street and Kensington Avenue, police said.
Later in the day, KCUR reported one of their journalists, who had been struck by a stray bullet while in her Kansas City apartment on Friday, had died. Aviva Okeson-Haberman was 24.
Police are asking anyone with information on any of the shootings to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information in the killing.
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 April 26, 2021 at 6:59 AM.
