What we know about the 7 homicides reported in the last week in the Kansas City metro
Seven people were killed in fatal shootings within the last week in the Kansas City region, including a teenage boy shot in Kansas City, Kansas, according to police.
Six of those killings were reported in Kansas City, Missouri, bringing the total number of homicides there this year to 13. By this time in 2021, Kansas City had suffered 10 homicides.
Last year, Kansas City saw its second-deadliest year on record, with 157 killings, according to data maintained by The Star. In 2020, 182 people were killed, making it the worst year on record.
Homicides have generally risen over the past 20 years. Since 2000, Kansas City has recorded just five years that did not exceed 100 lives lost as community leaders grapple with solutions.
Here’s a timeline of the violence over the last week across the metro area.
Homicides
On Tuesday, Jan. 25, officers responded to a shooting about 12:30 a.m. near St. John Avenue and Belmont Boulevard in the city’s Northeast area. They found a woman there on a sidewalk suffering from a gunshot wound .
The Kansas City Police Department initially identified the victim as a man, but it was later determined she was a woman. She died at the scene. The victim has not been identified publicly.
Later that day, about 10 p.m., a woman was fatally shot at the Hudson Pointe Apartments in the 8800 block of Crystal Lane in southeast Kansas City. Arriving officers entered an apartment after they heard screaming.
Officers tried to save the woman, but she died at the scene. She has not been identified publicly.
At 8:30 p.m. the next day, officers were dispatched about 8:30 p.m. to East 10th and Olive streets on a call seeking medical help. A woman flagged down arriving officers and directed them to a man who had been shot.
The victim, later identified as Austin Michael Knowles-DeClements, 25, was unresponsive, according to police. He was declared dead there by emergency medical personnel.
The witness told police she and the victim were fired upon while inside the vehicle. She told them the shooting unfolded at another location, police said. Officers had been trying to determine the exact location of the shooting.
On Thursday, officers were sent about 6:15 p.m. to the area of Van Brundt and Linwood boulevards on Kansas City’s far East Side on a reported shooting. A gunshot victim was found in the parking lot of a gas station there. He died at the scene.
In the parking lot of the gas station, between the convenience store and the gas pumps, there was a sedan with its headlights on and front doors ajar. The car appeared to be stained with blood on the driver’s side.
Two days later, on Saturday, a shooting unfolded about 6:45 p.m. in the area of East 28th Street and Brooklyn Avenue. There, officers found a man on the ground suffering from gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives believe an altercation may have led up to the shooting.
Less than four hours later, officers in Kansas City, Kansas, were called to a shooting about 10:30 p.m. in the 200 block of South 14th Street. They found a teenage boy who had been shot there inside a home.
The victim has not been identified. He was declared dead at the scene.
The boy’s killing marked the fifth homicide this year in Kansas City, Kansas. By this time last year, the city had suffered three killings and ended 2021 with 51 homicides, according to data maintained by The Star.
Then on Sunday, officers responded about 4:15 a.m. in the 3100 block of Elmwood Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, on another shooting. A man inside a home there was suffering from gunshot wounds.
The victim, identified as Dillion Simmons, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
