‘They respond to what they want to’: KC mom upset at police response to teen’s carjacking
A Kansas City mother is upset after she said she waited hours for police to respond when her 17-year-old daughter’s car was shot at and then later stolen at gunpoint once she got to school.
Carol Ready said her daughter Elnora Owens was on her way to school Wednesday when she was caught in the middle of a shooting near Anderson and Spruce avenues. A bullet struck and shattered the driver’s side window before Elnora drove two blocks away and called Ready, she said.
Ready and other family members met Elnora back at the scene of the shooting and she called police, but said no one initially responded to the scene. The family called police five more times, she said. Ready finally asked if police would have arrived faster if her daughter wasn’t Black.
“My daughter is out here waiting on the police and nobody is showing up,” she said. “I don’t understand. We’re two, three blocks from a school zone. She was on her way to school. This is a minor. Why hasn’t nobody showed up?”
In all, the family waited at least two hours from Elnora’s initial report before officers arrived, Ready said.
Capt. Leslie Foreman, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, said the call would have been considered low priority since the suspects had left the scene. She said a call taker relayed that the incident was reported 20 minutes later, the victim left the scene and there were no injuries, she said.
The family did call multiple times to request police response, she said, but the call was not bumped to high priority because none of the criteria had changed.
“Due to the high volume of calls and limited resources,” she said in an email, “calls must be prioritized.”
Police arrive
An officer at the scene told Ready to bring up the issue with a supervisor and agreed police should have been dispatched earlier, she said. But Ready said the conversation with the supervisor didn’t go well, and at one point Ready said the supervisor told her to “shut up” while she attempted to explain her situation.
After they were done talking with police, Ready said she followed Elnora the rest of the drive to Northeast High School. About 40 minutes later, Elnora called to tell her mom she was held at gunpoint and her car had been stolen, Ready said.
Once she got inside the school, Elnora told school resource officers about the situation and then was able to call her family.
Because the carjacker told Elnora to leave her phone in the car, Ready was able to track it to a chop shop in the 420 block of Kensington Avenue. Fueled by anger over her daughter’s experiences, Ready decided to hop into her own SUV to hunt down the carjackers herself.
When she spotted her daughter’s car, Ready said several people were getting into it, so she pulled her vehicle in front to block them. She said that’s when they smashed into the passenger side of her SUV. Acting from instinct, Ready said she chased them while on the phone with police, updating them on her location until her car started squealing. Eventually, she said police took over the chase.
It ended when the car crashed into a pile of furniture on the side of the road, Ready said. She said police told her they had three people in custody and were searching for one more when Ready and her family arrived at the scene.
After four different phone calls directing her to various locations to give statements, Ready said the family was eventually directed to police headquarters for Elnora to give a statement and look at a photo lineup.
Foreman said she couldn’t discuss the specifics of the case because it was still under investigation.
“All of that being said, we do strive to provide the best service possible,” she said. “It sounds like this family does not feel they received that, especially in regard to speaking with a supervisor.
“We are always open to feedback and are always looking at ways we can improve.”
She encouraged the family to make a complaint through the Office of Community Complaints or to contact the division station where the incident occurred and speak with a commander.
On Monday, the second day Elnora came to school following the incident, she and her principal got in an argument after she said school resource officers could have done more to help her and prevent the carjacking, Ready said. The principal allegedly told Elnora he wasn’t responsible for anything that happened beyond school doors and suspended her for five days for talking back, Ready said.
When Ready contacted the principal later, she said they fought, and he told her multiple times that he would not apologize for the incident, she said. Elnora will no longer attend Northeast High School, Ready said, and she’ll instead complete her diploma through the Missouri Option Program. Ready also plans to file a grievance against the principal.
Elle Moxley, a spokeswoman for Kansas City Public Schools, said the district can’t comment on specific situations involving students, but she said security officers are stationed outside the school before and after the day starts. However, Elnora arrived to school several hours after the school day began after her car had been shot.
The school has had increased security patrols since the incident, Moxley said.
“If we know a KCPS student has been impacted by community violence, we offer trauma-informed school-based supports,” Moxley wrote in an email. “We work closely with families to determine what resources are helpful.”
‘It’s like everything has been taken away’
Now, Ready said she’s anxious for her children’s safety and their future in Kansas City. She said she now worries police here can’t be trusted to protect her family.
“They respond to what they want to,” she said.
Ready said she moved her family from Detroit in recent years after losing everything in a fire. The family had just gotten back on their feet and were able to afford the cars when the carjacking happened, costing Ready the two vehicles and her two jobs and severely impacting her and her daughter’s mental health, she said.
Plus, she’s still dealing with other fallout from the incident.
She said she doesn’t think Kansas City police reported the damage to her second vehicle that was struck by her daughter’s stolen car, which means she’ll need to take a bus to the police department to report it herself. Her daughter’s phone, which according to Ready’s tracking app remains in the area where the stolen vehicle was found, also has her Social Security card and other important cards.
Elnora didn’t go to school the next day, and Ready said she walked her younger daughter to school herself because she worried for her safety. She plans to get psychiatric evaluations scheduled for her and her daughter because of the anxiety and depression the incident has reignited. And then she’ll need to figure out ways to pay upcoming bills.
“We were just making do with what we had,” Ready said, “and now it’s like everything has been taken away from us in one day.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
