Grandview man ‘gunned down senselessly’ in his driveway, neighbor says. Suspect arrested
A neighbor of the Grandview man killed early Wednesday amid a south Kansas City shooting spree says she witnessed him being “gunned down senselessly” as he was backing his car down the driveway.
Phyllis Harrison, who lives across the street, said she was speaking with her boyfriend before he left for work. Then, she said, she saw a man exit a green pickup and start shooting her neighbor.
“Shot him up. Got back in his vehicle. At the corner, actually stopped at the stop sign,” Harrison said of the suspected shooter, who authorities say was apprehended later Wednesday. “Used his blinker, too.”
She said she ran across the street, barefoot, as she tried to help and dialed 911.
“He still had some life in him. And so I prayed with him, I said the Lord’s Prayer with him. I didn’t get to finish it before he died,” Harrison said, adding that the young man usually left for work around that time of morning.
The identity of the shooting victim was not disclosed by police.
The killing was the second of three incidents in the south Kansas City area that sent police on an emergency search for a person suspected of shooting at least two other people within the space of roughly 15 minutes.
Kansas City police on Wednesday released images of a rusty green pickup truck with a lawnmower and gas can loaded into its bed. Later Wednesday morning, Sgt. Jake Becchina, a department spokesman, said the suspect had been located in south Kansas City and taken into police custody.
The suspect’s identity was not disclosed by police.
All three shootings occurred within about a mile of one another on Kansas City’s southeastern border with suburban Grandview.
The first call came at 8:19 a.m. in Kansas City’s Ruskin Heights neighborhood in the 7600 block of East 113th Street.
Around 8:31 a.m., Grandview police were dispatched to the 11900 block of Smalley Avenue in response to the fatal shooting.
The third call was also in Ruskin Heights in the 11400 block of Corrington Avenue.
Kansas City police said the shooting victims in Ruskin Heights were believed to have suffered nonfatal injuries. Further information about their condition or the circumstances surrounding the shootings was not disclosed by police Wednesday night.
Grandview police released few details of the killing Wednesday. Master Sgt. Gabriel Gilbert said in an email the homicide investigation remained active and no additional information was being shared.
Harrison, the Grandview neighbor, told The Star on Wednesday the event was traumatic for her and her family, including her teenage daughter. And she said the man who lived across the street from her was always friendly and nice.
“He was awesome,” Harrison said. “I hate to see him go like that.”
Another neighbor in Grandview, Vanessa Ichrist, said the car of the young man who died rolled into her daughter’s after he was shot. Ichrist, a who recently moved to the area, expressed her condolences for those affected by Wednesday’s violence.
“I don’t know what the motivation was. And we may never know,” Ichrist said. “But it just seems such a waste to make other people part of your pain or your rage. It just seems so wasteful of life.”
