‘You start getting afraid’: Neighbors recall fatal shooting Sunday in Kansas City, Kan.
They were lying in bed waiting for the sun to rise when the gunshots began.
“We heard pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. I went to the window. He went to the front door,” a Kansas City, Kansas, woman said of a shooting Sunday morning near her home by Matney Park that left one man dead.
Soon after the gunshots stopped, she called 911. Minutes later, the area was full of flashing lights and police tape. The woman and her husband asked to remain anonymous for fear of their safety.
Deputies were sent at about 5:23 a.m. to the park’s entrance near Shawnee Drive and South 39th Street on a shooting, Capt. Kyle Harvey with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Sunday.
There, first responders found a shooting victim in a car inside the park, Harvey said. The man, whose identity has not yet been released, had been shot several times. Officials said the victim appeared to be in his 20s or 30s.
The neighbor estimated he heard about 12 to 16 gunshots. He also saw detectives put down about that many evidence markers.
From the couple’s vantage point, it looked like once the shooting stopped, the vehicle the victim was in drove in an oblong circle through the entrance of the park before coming to rest in the grass behind a playground set.
Though the victim’s vehicle had been towed, and the crime scene tape taken down by late morning Sunday, a few other curious neighbors stopped by the park, asking around if anyone knew the victim.
Others dropped by to take advantage of the sunshine and frequent the walking trail. The neighbor who called 911 said she used to be one of the trail walkers, but she doesn’t feel safe exercising at the park anymore.
A sign near the entrance says the park closes at 10:30 p.m. But the couple said they often see people in the parking lot beyond those hours.
Though they’ve lived in the neighborhood for a few decades, and occasionally hear gunshots, the couple said they don’t remember a homicide happening this close to their own backyard.
“You want to keep your neighborhood safe and crime, just, it’s there,” she said. “But when it gets that close, then you start getting afraid.”
No suspect information was immediately available, according to the sheriff’s office, which is investigating the killing since it happened within one of their parks.
The homicide marks the 24th killing this year in Kansas City, Kansas, according to data maintained by The Star.
Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
