Murder charge filed in daytime killing in Kansas City’s Ivanhoe Northeast neighborhood
Jackson County prosecutors have charged a 31-year-old man with murder in a fatal shooting that unfolded in Kansas City’s Ivanhoe Northeast neighborhood in February.
Gonzolo S. Duvergel, of Kansas City, is accused of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 53-year-old Jamal W. Garcia. He has been held in the Jackson County jail on other felony charges, including a separate shooting, since early June.
Garcia was fatally shot on Feb. 21 in the 3600 block of Wabash Avenue. According to court documents, police officers were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. based on a report from ShotSpotter, an acoustic system designed to detect the distinct sound of gunfire.
Officers found a man in the street suffering from several gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A witness told police the shooter removed a sweater, tossed it on the ground and rode away on a bicycle. Police found a bicycle abandoned south of the the scene and collected DNA from the seat that linked to Duvergel, authorities said.
Detectives were provided a receipt from a Kansas City motel where a room had been rented in Duvergel’s name. Surveillance footage from the motel allegedly showed Duvergel, Garcia and others together on the day of the killing.
In March, Duvergel was arrested on a separate charge of unlawful possession of a firearm and was later released. Police seized a cellphone from him that authorities allege was later determined through digital location data to have been in the area of the killing on Feb. 21.
While out on bond, Duvergel was again arrested in June after being accused of shooting a transgender woman near 51st Street and Prospect Avenue.
The shooting victim in that case told police she crawled to a gas station seeking help after being shot and robbed by a man in an SUV on June 1. She alleged Duvergel shot her because she is transgender, saying they would see each other occasionally in passing and he “would scowl at her and express disgust that she existed.”
Duvergel has pleaded not guilty to those charges. The criminal case is ongoing in Jackson County Circuit Court.
During a police interview in mid-June regarding the fatal shooting of Garcia, detectives showed Duvergel photographs of surveillance photos that authorities allege showed him at a motel. Duvergel told detectives he was not the person in the photographs, according to court documents.
Online court records did not list a defense attorney representing Duvergel in the murder case as of Thursday. An arrest warrant calls for him to be held on a $250,000 cash bond on those felony charges.
