Kansas City landlord allegedly put tenant in hospital with beating for not paying rent
A Kansas City landlord is accused of attacking his tenant with a wooden pole in the parking lot of a Sheffield neighborhood convenience store on Monday night.
Authorities said the encounter landed both men in the hospital with serious injuries.
Haidar Alkhuzaii, of Riverside, was charged Tuesday in Jackson County Circuit Court with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. As of Monday night, he remained hospitalized with serious injuries and was being monitored by police officers.
According to court records, Kansas City police were called around 7:40 p.m. Monday to investigate a disturbance outside the Quick Shop gas station and convenience store at 5401 Winner Road on the far East Side. Arriving officers found one man, identified as the victim of an assault, on the ground in the parking lot with bloody head wounds.
He was taken by ambulance to the hospital for treatment of facial cuts and facial fractures, including a broken jaw. In the parking lot police found more blood, a broken piece of wood and a pocket knife.
During a police interview, the alleged assault victim said he was standing outside the store — identified in court papers as his workplace — and smoking a cigarette when Alkhuzaii, his landlord, pulled up in a vehicle with another person. He alleged that Alkhuzaii was armed with a wooden pole and started hitting him in the head unprovoked.
The victim pulled a pocket knife for defense, he told police, but was then attacked by Alkhuzaii’s companion as well. He told detectives that he eventually became dizzy and fell to the ground.
The victim also told police Alkhuzaii was “upset that the rent has not been paid,” a detective wrote in charging documents.
That night, roughly 11 minutes after police were called, Alkhuzaii was checked in at the hospital after being brought there in a private vehicle. He had a severe cut to his face and was taken into surgery. The person who brought him there left before police arrived, according to court records.
Witnesses to the account included convenience store employees. They described Alkhuzaii and the other man as the aggressors, saying the assault victim was being struck as he tried to run away, according to court records.
Surveillance video from the store reviewed by police also allegedly shows Alkhuzaii begin the fight and backed up those statements. It also showed the victim swinging toward Alkhuzaii at one point, according to court documents.
An arrest warrant for Alkhuzaii was issued Tuesday. It calls for him to be held on a $25,000 bond.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 8:11 AM.
