Three counts of murder added to charges against man in Prospect Avenue mass shooting
A man charged Monday with assault now faces additional charges including three counts of murder, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Tuesday.
On Monday, prosecutors charged Keivon M. Greene, 26, of Kansas City, with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Prosecutors on Tuesday added three counts of second-degree murder and two additional counts of armed criminal action. Prosecutors requested he be held without bond.
Greene was identified as one of two suspects, court documents said.
The shooting Sunday unfolded around 4:30 a.m. at an auto shop that held after-hours parties at 57th and Prospect Avenue. The shooting claimed the lives of 28-year-old Jasity J. Strong, 29-year-old Camden M. Brown and 22-year-old Nikko A. Manning. Six others were wounded in the shooting. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
By some definitions, the incident could be considered a mass shooting.
Prosecutors said Greene is charged with second-degree murder in Brown and Manning’s homicides. He is charged with second-degree felony murder in Strong’s killing. A felony murder charge can be filed when someone dies in the commission of a felony; prosecutors said it’s unclear whether Greene fired the fatal shot that killed Strong.
“This individual is being charged with all of the events of that evening, whether or not he fired the fatal shot or not.,” Baker said at a news conference. “He is the individual that set off this chain event that led to shooting by others, so under Missouri law, he too is to be held accountable for all the results of that evening.”
About two days before the shooting, Greene posted $1,000 cash to bond out after about nine days in jail on charges of resisting arrest and drug possession, both felonies, out of Independence.
Baker said while it might be tempting to attack the judge for that bond, she believes the judge was following the rule governing bonds, which say the least restrictive conditions for release should be imposed.
She said they’re still investigating a motive, but it appears it was “a small dispute” that set off the shooting. The investigation is still open and authorities are still looking at other persons of interest.
The shooting
The charging documents filed Monday and Tuesday focus on the account of one witness who survived the shooting. She told police that at about 3 a.m. Sunday, she was at what she described as a “club” in the 5600 block of Prospect Avenue. At the entrance of the building, she saw a man standing with his girlfriend; she hugged both of them.
At that point, her own boyfriend walked up to the man at the entrance and told him to “watch his hands,” according to Monday’s charging documents.
The woman initially told police that the man at the door then moved away from the couple that had just approached. As the couple turned to walk away, the man at the entrance pulled out a gun and shot the second man in the back, the girlfriend told police.
After the initial shot was fired, another suspect, identified in court records as Greene, pulled out a gun and shot the woman, who was the girlfriend of the man who was shot in the back. The woman initially told police she ran into the club to take cover after being shot in the buttocks “and heard the sound of continued gunfire outside of the location,” court records show.
But surveillance footage from a nearby building shows a slightly different series of events.
Just before the shooting, multiple people and vehicles were gathered outside the shop. The video shows a man in white shirt walk up to two females standing in the street at East 57th Street between Prospect and Wabash avenues. After a short conversation, the man, who police have since identified as Greene, walked westbound on 57th Street before stopping to talk to a male about 25 feet away, court records show.
Moments later, video shows a different male walk up to the two females and give them a hug. Less than a minute later, a male with long dreadlocks walked over to the male who had just hugged the females, and started talking to him.
Fifteen seconds later, Greene walked back over toward the crowd where the two females were and began shooting into the group, Tuesday’s charging documents show. Then Greene turned to his right and started shooting at a group of people in the parking lot of 5700 Prospect Avenue. He then walks out of camera view and isn’t seen again in the recording.
On Monday, police played the surveillance clip to the surviving female victim, who said she knew Greene from school. While watching the footage, she confirmed that she and another female were the ones standing in the street. When the video was over, the victim said she now believes Green shot her, rather than the other suspect.
Surveillance footage from the hospital also showed Greene wearing a white shirt.
On Sunday, as detectives were interviewing victims at the hospital, they also interviewed Greene, who wasn’t yet considered a suspect.
Greene told police that he walked out of a club called “After Hours” with his brother, who’s identified as the other suspect in court records, though he’s not named.
He told police that he noticed a man in his underwear “causing a disturbance” and then heard “gunshots coming from everywhere,” court records show. Greene said he was shot in the hand and taken to the hospital by someone who was at the scene.
‘A very chaotic scene’
The shooting took place outside Perfect Touch Auto Detail, a business Kansas City police said was “known to host informal ‘after hours’ gatherings.”
Police Chief Stacey Graves said the shop was not designated as a club.
“At times we do have establishments that will open their businesses, not in a legal form, not with the correct industry standards and licenses that they need to operate such a business,” she said. “We were aware of this after-hours location ... but it was sporadic. People were there and not there. We have taken measures to address it and I do know that will continue as we move forward past this incident.”
Graves said the city is working to take action, but didn’t clarify what that might mean.
“From what I understand there is a business license for the mechanic shop, so all of that will be reviewed and looked into,” she said.
It’s unclear how many people were at the event, but Graves said “it was a very chaotic scene when our officers arrived.”
The city has recorded 99 homicides so far this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. At this time last year, there had been 74 killings. In 2020, the deadliest year on record, 95 homicides had been recorded by this time in Kansas City.
At the Board of Police Commissioners meeting earlier Tuesday, Graves said the number of homicides was alarming. By the department’s count, there have been 97 killings.
“We have a complex problem of gun violence in our neighborhoods and communities. I’d say we have a culture of violence where it’s expected and accepted,” she said.
“Ninety-seven lives taken by violence in our city and 97 grieving families in your city where we all live and work,” Graves said. “I don’t want to get desensitized by all this violence.”
She also acknowledged there were concerns about how long one of the victims was on the ground after Sunday’s shooting.
“It took longer than we feel like it should have with a victim still in the street,” Graves said. “... I’m not faulting our crime scene (technicians), but something that me, as the leader of this organization, just to look at what the balance is of making sure that we capture the scene, all the evidence involved, all the measurements and whatnot with also the sensitivity that we have a person, we have someone’s family member, in the street.”
Independence charges
On June 14, Greene was arrested in Independence for allegedly acting as the getaway driver for two women shoplifting at a Kohl’s the day before.
Independence police who were responding to the Kohl’s proceeded to chase Greene, who was driving a Nissan.
Court records show that Greene reached speeds of 108 miles an hour during the chase. He eventually sideswiped two passing vehicles and abandoned his vehicle. Police caught up to Greene on foot, then arrested him.
A gun was found in the vehicle Greene was driving, but police determined it was not stolen, and that none of the suspects in the vehicle were convicted felons.
According to Greene’s bond agreement, he was not legally supposed to be in possession of firearms or ammunition while awaiting his court date for the Independence charges.
Greene also has a felony case in Jackson County related to drug possession and unlawful gun possession from a 2019 incident. He was pulled over by Kansas City police as a passenger in a car while allegedly in possession of a semi-automatic rifle and felony quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy.
In May, Kansas City detectives arrested Greene on a bench warrant in that case. He was released pending further investigation and later charged with another count of felony possession of cocaine in Jackson County.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed.
This story was originally published June 27, 2023 at 12:02 PM.
