1 of 3 victims in Friday shooting at Kansas City funeral home has died: police
One of three people shot at a funeral home Friday in south Kansas City has died, police said.
The shooting was first reported at about 11:40 a.m Friday at Elite Funeral Chapel, at 11525 Blue Ridge Blvd. Police said their initial investigation leads them to believe the shooting was a result of an argument that began inside the funeral home chapel.
On Monday morning, authorities were told that 29-year-old Bryson Washington, who remained hospitalized with critical injuries since the shooting, died from his injuries, Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email to media.
“Detectives are still working with crime scene investigators to piece together the sequence of events and determine exactly what led up to the shooting,” he said.
Multiple witnesses to the shooting are cooperating with homicide detectives, who’ve taken over the investigation, police said Monday.
A suspect has not yet been publicly identified.
Witnesses at the shooting scene Friday told The Star that a man who appeared to be intoxicated opened fire at the funeral home after being asked to leave.
The witness, an employee whose wife was inside the building at the time, said after staff asked the man to leave he was seen exiting before returning with a gun.
Witnesses told The Star that the man shot a woman as she sat on a couch inside the funeral home before shooting another person, now identified as Washington, outside.
A third shooting victim, a man, was also found inside a nearby laundromat. Police on Monday said he wasn’t believed to be an intended target of the gunfire.
The surviving man and woman remained in stable condition Monday morning, Becchina said.
A fourth person was also wounded with minor injuries, but it was unknown if he was grazed by gunfire or by glass, police said. He did not require hospitalization.
Washington’s death marks the eighth homicide recorded this year in Kansas City, according to data kept by The Star. Last year the city suffered the second-deadliest year on record, with 171 killing, the majority of which were the result of gun violence.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 12:52 PM.
