19-year-old accused of murder in fatal Kansas City shooting involving AR-style rifle
A 19-year-old is accused of fatally shooting another young man near a home in the Fairlane neighborhood on Kansas City’s southeast side last month as a fight was breaking out between juveniles.
Terrance J. Robinson, of Kansas City, was charged Wednesday with felony murder, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful weapon use, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday. Authorities allege he shot Davonte Robinson with an AR-style rifle, mortally wounding him.
Court records show Kansas City police were dispatched on the evening of Feb. 22 to the intersection of 101st Street and Fremont Avenue on a reported armed disturbance. While en route, officers were alerted that a shooting had taken place.
Officers arrived to find the victim on the kitchen floor of a residence there with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken by ambulance to Research Medical Center, where medical staff reported that he could not be saved.
Davonte Robinson was transferred to Truman Medical Center days afterward, where he remained on life support as of March 18. He was considered legally dead at that time.
Detectives and investigators were led to suspect Terrance Robinson as the shooter based on several witness accounts and a surveillance tape captured by a home security camera, court records show.
Footage from a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera showed two vehicles outside of the residence in the 6300 block of E. 101st St. around 5 p.m. One was chased by police on the day of the shooting, ending in a crash, and the driver was arrested.
One witness told police she agreed to drive several juveniles over to the shooting residence for a plan to meet up and fight there.
Other juveniles involved in the altercation described the plan to fight, including one who told a detective that she heard the sound of gunfire and saw the victim “lying on the steps covering the younger kids,” according to court records. She added that she saw a man, identified by police as Robinson, pointing a long gun at the house.
Roughly one week after the shooting, police attempted to stop the second vehicle believed to have been at the house that day with Robinson inside. He and a woman were arrested and taken in for interviews at police headquarters.
Robinson declined to speak with detectives about what happened the night of Feb. 22, court records say. Robinson was held in Jackson County jail on a burglary charge.
A detective working on the case monitored jail calls Robinson made where he allegedly discussed the rifle believed to be used in the shooting with others. Based in part on that information, police were given authority to search a residence where the AR-style rifle was discovered underneath a bed.
Investigators also found shell casings at the scene of the shooting and inside the SUV that Robinson was in when he was arrested earlier this month. Authorities allege the casings all came from the same firearm.
Robinson is being held without bond in the Jackson County jail.
