Man dead, person of interest in custody following shooting on Kansas City’s East Side
Update: Police on Wednesday identified the homicide victim as 62-year-old Phillip Holoman.
A man died following a shooting Wednesday afternoon in Kansas City.
Officers responded around 12:30 p.m. to the area of East 45th Street and South Benton Avenue, where they found the man unresponsive in the street, said Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department.
Emergency medical crews transported the man to a hospital, where he was treated but later pronounced dead, Becchina said.
Investigators believe the man interacted with a person of interest who remained at the scene when officers arrived. Officers took the subject into custody to be questioned by detectives.
Officials are not searching for any additional persons of interest.
The killing was the 107th homicide in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. At this time last year, there had been 81 homicides.
At the scene, Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté said the repeat shootings in the Oak Park neighborhood felt like a “slow motion mass murder.”
Having spent Christmases and family gatherings on South Benton as a child, he said, it’s disheartening to see the neighborhood rife with gun violence.
“It used to be you fight, shake hands and walk to school together,” Forté said. “This is poor conflict resolution skills.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 2:32 PM.
