Kansas City man charged with murder in fatal gas station shooting
A 29-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting another man in a car parked outside a Kansas City gas station and convenience store last week.
Camoi Hendricks, of Kansas City, is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 34-year-old Kirk Whittaker. Prosecutors announced the charges Monday as Hendricks is being held in the Jackson County jail.
According to court records, officers were dispatched around 1 p.m. on March 14 to the 8100 block of Bannister Road for a reported shooting. There they found Whittaker slumped over in the driver’s seat of a black Lexus sedan and an apparent bullet hole through the driver’s side window.
Whittaker was taken by ambulance to a hospital and pronounced dead there.
Detectives reviewed surveillance video that showed a man getting inside Whittaker’s vehicle twice outside the gas station, according to court records. The surveillance video showed the man, identified by police as Hendricks, getting in and out of Whittaker’s car before the shooting.
Hendricks allegedly fled the area in his own car afterward, according to court records.
One witness told investigators he was on the phone with Whittaker around the time the shooting took place and overheard him having a conversation with another man. The witness told investigators he thought the pair may have been discussing an illegal transaction, court records state.
During an interview with detectives, Hendricks allegedly said he was attempting to sell marijuana to the victim. Hendricks described a struggle over a gun inside the vehicle that led to the fatal shooting, according to court records. A detective wrote in charging documents that Hendricks’ account of what happened did not match evidence found by investigators.
