Downtown loop reopens hours after woman killed in highway shooting in Kansas City
A deadly pre-rush hour shooting shut down a part of Kansas City’s highway system for about three hours, snarling traffic headed into and through the downtown area, Kansas City Scout traffic cameras showed.
Traffic, however, has returned to normal after the highway was reopened about 8:40 a.m.
Police received a 911 call shortly before 5:40 a.m. that there was an injury crash along westbound Interstate 670 near Broadway in the downtown loop of Kansas City, said Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department.
While officers were en route, a second 911 call came in saying that someone had been shot. Arriving officers found a woman suffering from gunshot wounds inside a vehicle.
Emergency medical workers rushed her to a hospital in critical condition. A short time later, the woman died from her injuries, Drake said.
Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators responded to the scene and were collecting evidence and looking for witnesses and video of the shooting.
Police shut down the westbound lanes of I-670 while they investigated the homicide, causing traffic into downtown Kansas City to back up along westbound lanes of Interstate 70 beyond the Van Brunt Boulevard exit.
Traffic along the northbound Bruce R. Watkins Drive into downtown was also backed up to 27th Street. Traffic on Interstate 29/35 from the northland across the Bond Bridge was slow going as it crossed over the Missouri River into the downtown loop.
After the highway reopened, traffic into and through downtown has returned to normal.
The killing is the 82nd homicide in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. There were 69 killings by this time last year, which ended as the second-deadliest year on record with 171 killings.
In 2020, 182 lives were lost, the most homicides ever recorded. The next year was the third-deadliest year, with 157 killings in 2021.
Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information provided to TIPS which leads to an arrest in the case.
Kansas City police are working with Partners for Peace in all of the city’s homicide investigations to monitor risks for retaliation and provide social services to those affected.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published June 7, 2023 at 7:32 AM.
