Kansas City man allegedly took hostages, shot at cops after ex refused to cook breakfast
A 53-year-old man faces nine felony charges for allegedly firing a volley of gunshots at police inside a Kansas City apartment on Saturday morning as officers were attempting to convince him to release two hostages and peacefully surrender, according to court documents.
Billie R. Shears, of Kansas City, was charged with four counts of first-degree assault, four counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful firearm possession, according to charging documents filed Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court. Shears was arrested Saturday afternoon after an hours-long episode in the North Town Fork Creek neighborhood apartment building that began earlier that morning.
According to court documents, several officers responded to the 5100 block of East 51st Street on a reported disturbance. Those arriving on scene were directed to a ground-floor apartment where a man “had barricaded himself in a bedroom within the apartment along with two females,” a Kansas City police detective wrote in charging documents.
Four officers went inside the apartment to address the situation as Shears was inside a bedroom with two women, identified in court records as his former girlfriend and her physically disabled daughter.
The officers told the investigating detectives that Shears was yelling through the closed bedroom door, threatening to start shooting as the women were inside. He eventually punched a hole through that door, according to court documents, and one officer noticed what appeared to be a handgun in his possession.
Shears allegedly fired multiple rounds toward the front door as officers were inside the apartment. One officer reported using his service weapon to fire two rounds through a living room window as all four officers jumped out of the residence to avoid being struck, saying the only doorway exit was directly in the line of fire.
Another officer told police he was set up on a window, covered by blinds, as he heard gunfire and saw that rounds were being fired in his direction.
No officers were shot during the incident. One reported a cut to his finger that occurred as he climbed outside through the broken window to escape.
Gunfire subsided as one of the two women in the bedroom ran outside to police. During an interview with detectives, she said Shears asked her to retrieve more ammunition for him and she used that opportunity to escape.
The woman, identified only by her initials in court documents, told police Shears had come to her apartment Friday night unannounced. She said they watched TV and that she let him sleep at the foot of her bed.
Around 6 a.m., the woman said Shears began to demand that she “fix him breakfast” and grew upset when she refused. She accused him of messing with the lights and the burners on the stove, then going into the bedroom of her daughter, who recently suffered a stroke and is partially paralyzed.
Inside the bedroom, the woman told detectives, Shears started breaking and throwing things around. She says she was attacked by him after she walked inside the room to investigate, and ultimately saw that he was armed with a gun.
“The suspect would not allow her and her daughter to leave the bedroom and threatened to kill them both,” a Kansas City police detective wrote in charging documents for Shears.
Inside the room, after police had responded, the woman allegedly witnessed as Shears “began shooting at the police” and counted six or seven shots before he ran out of bullets. She told detectives she struck him twice with her daughter’s cane before she ran away.
Tactical officers entered the apartment Saturday afternoon and took Shears into police custody. The other woman inside the apartment was unharmed, police have said.
Shears was taken to a hospital for treatment of being under the influence of an “unknown substance” and then transferred to the Metro Patrol jail for an investigative hold. He allegedly declined to speak with detectives seeking to interview him, saying “I know my rights.”
Court records did not list a defense attorney for Shears as of Monday night. He was being held in the Jackson County jail without bond.
