Kansas City police ID youth killed in Sunday night highway shooting as 15-year-old
Kansas City police identified the person shot and killed late Sunday night on Bruce R. Watkins Drive as a 15-year-old boy while detectives continued to search for a suspect Monday.
Sgt. Jake Becchina, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman, said in an email that the teenager fatally shot was Diego Almeda, whose 16th birthday would have passed Thursday. Almeda’s death is the third homicide investigation of a minor teenager led by Kansas City police over the past two weeks.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 71 near 22nd Street for a reported shooting. On the side of the highway was a vehicle with two gunshot victims inside.
Almeda and the other shooting victim, described by police as an adult teenage male, were taken to the hospital by ambulance. The other teen was in critical condition Sunday night.
Police believe the gunfire came from another vehicle on the highway. The motivation behind the shooting was still unknown. As of Monday evening, police had yet to develop a suspect description or identify a person of interest.
Becchina said there was no indication that Almeda’s homicide is connected to any other recent homicides, though he added that police were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
The killing marks the 123rd homicide in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. There were 101 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. As of Monday, Kansas City remained on pace with the deadliest year in its history.
Anyone with information about the fatal shooting is asked to call homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information submitted anonymously to the TIPS Hotline.
The Star’s Robert. A Cronkleton contributed to this report.
