High schooler killed in mass shooting at Kansas City, Kansas, Halloween party is remembered
On Monday, Chris Richards took a beat longer to take in the student in front of him.
Katron Harris, a senior at Turner High School who’d been in Richards’ special education class every day since his freshman year, looked grown up. Maybe it was his new outfit, or the way he’d done his hair.
Whatever it was, Richards knew he was proud of the stylish, funny and kind burgeoning young adult standing before him.
“We knew that he would go far,” Richards told a crowd of about 150 people gathered for a candle light vigil Sunday outside New Story Church, in the 5500 block of Woodend Avenue, in Kansas City, Kansas.
Six days earlier, about two miles north of the church, multiple people wearing costumes and masks entered a home in the 1600 block of South 50th Street where a Halloween party attended by 70-100 high school students was underway.
Before the night was over, the group of unwelcome guests had shot and killed 17-year-old Harris and injured half a dozen other teens.
Harris was pronounced dead at the scene. An 18-year-old was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said. The others victims, who sustained injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, are between the ages of 15-16.
Remembering Katron Harris
At school, Harris, known for his friendliness, served drinks to his peers at the school’s coffee shop. After school, they cheered him on as he played wide receiver and special teams receiver on the football team.
At home, he was a big brother to his 14-year-old sister and 6-year-old brother. He loved to dance and sing with his cousins.
Harris’s family said he spoke eagerly of his plans post-graduation. Harris hoped to launch his own t-shirt business, already in contact with printers and preparing merchandise.
It was a dream he spoke of often, his teacher, Richards, said.
Richards found out that Harris had been killed a few hours after the bullets flew. But the loss didn’t truly hit until the next day, when he walked into his emptier classroom, where memories of Harris surrounded him.
“It’s still very hard to believe,” Richards said. “Losing anybody in this way, it’s hard to wrap my mind around.”
Richards spent the past week guiding his students as they processed, grieved and repeated Harris’s name.
On Friday, in English class, they put pen to paper and detailed their favorite memories of Harris through words and drawings. Richards plans to gift them to Harris’s family.
He’s never lost a student to gun violence before. He prays he never does again.
Losing Harris made him realize how desensitized he’d become to the constant news of shootings across the metro.
“You hear about it every day ... some family lost somebody,” Richards said. “But until it happens to you, I think that this helps me connect to more families that had this happen to them,” he said.
Homicide charges filed
On Thursday, Daijon Estell, 22, was charged with first degree murder in Harris’s killing, as well as one count of aggravated assault, eight counts of child endangerment and two counts of aggravated child endangerment.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Karl Oakman said detectives were searching for as many as six suspects — all of whom showed up disguised in costume for the event.
The homeowner noticed the group was made of individuals older than the rest of the party-goers and asked them to leave, police have said. The suspects left the home, then sprayed the house with bullets.
Students, mostly younger teens between 14-16 years old, were both inside and outside the home at the time, and several were shot.
Police have said they’re looking for a dark-colored, possibly gray, SUV, that the suspected shooters were believed to be riding in the night of the shooting.
Police have not released any information regarding other suspects, but Harris’s loved ones on Sunday night asked that anyone who knows something say something.
TIPS regarding any homicides in the metro can be submitted anonymously through the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
‘Long live Tron’
As a number of teenagers took to a microphone to remember Harris on Sunday evening, his mother, Meghan Wertacet, stood nearby, holding a bouquet of flowers.
Her son’s face was plastered across her red t-shirt, the words “rest in peace Katron aka ‘Mr. Popular’” written across it. Over her heart hung a necklace with Harris’s photo, a gift from his dentist.
Harris liked to call himself “Mr. Popular,” she said; the crowd gathered that chilly Sunday night was proof.
“The support means a lot. He actually got exactly what he said he was, Mr. Popular,” she said. “I’m glad he’s looking down and he can see everybody and who all came together for him.”
With the community gathered around Harris’s family, dozens of red balloons floated up as they spoke his name to the sky.
“Long live Tron.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 10:26 PM.
