Man charged in killing at Kansas City homeless encampment where body was found in shack
A 58-year-old homeless man is accused of slashing another man to death inside a shack at an encampment near Kansas City’s Berkley Riverfront.
Jackson County prosecutors on Wednesday charged Tracy E. McKee, of Kansas City, with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 59-year-old James Perry. McKee was being held in the Jackson County jail as of Wednesday night on a $200,000 cash bond.
Authorities allege eyewitnesses put McKee at the scene of the killing, including one who picked him out of a photo lineup. Witnesses said Perry was attacked with a bladed instrument, possibly a dagger, sword or machete, and they fled afterward.
McKee was arrested Tuesday. During a police interview, McKee denied involvement in the killing and asked for a lawyer. He did not have an attorney listed in online court records as of Wednesday.
Kansas City police found Perry in response to a call for service Saturday in the 1000 block of East First Street. The first report came in as a medical call after a man walked into a dog-grooming business and told employees his friend was dead inside a small “shanty” nearby.
Perry, also identified as homeless, was subsequently located by police inside a small shack made of tarps and scrap wood that was surrounded by a homeless encampment near the railroad tracks and Heart of America Bridge at the riverfront, according to court documents. He was seated in a chair, covered in cuts, and showed no signs of life.
Witnesses told detectives they saw McKee enter Perry’s makeshift tent Friday morning, the day before Perry was found. He allegedly attacked Perry and told them to leave.
Authorities allege surveillance video from a nearby business recorded McKee walking alongside two other people on the railroad tracks toward the homeless camp late that morning. The three people are then seen exiting the camp and walking eastbound 10 minutes later, just before noon.
Homicide detectives noted in charging documents that there was a call for service that officers responded to on Feb. 23, the morning before the killing, that involved Perry and McKee.
On that call, McKee was located by police “suffering from an injury and hallucinating” and then taken to the hospital. But “no crime was determined to have occurred” and that “nothing else of note occurred” other than Perry identifying himself to police during the call, according to court documents.
