Kansas City police were called to dead 5-year-old’s apartment at least 8 times since 2018
Update: For years before his death, neighbors of Grayson O’Connor reported signs of abuse and neglect, including finding him unsupervised at a bus stop and recording screams coming from the apartment he shared with his mother. Here are their accounts.
In the years before 5-year-old Grayson O’Connor was found dead in the alley behind the downtown high-rise building where he lived, Kansas City police were called to his apartment at least eight times, according to records obtained by The Star and information from neighbors.
At the time of his death on Nov. 27, the boy and his mother were living on the 17th floor of the Grand Boulevard Lofts. Police have confirmed Grayson fell from an open window, though the cause of his death remained under investigation Tuesday.
Kansas City police have classified the investigation as a suspicious death, saying detectives believe the boy could have died as a result of child neglect or homicide. Exact circumstances surrounding his death remain unknown.
Sgt. Jake Becchina, a police spokesman, said in an email Tuesday that a case file had not been submitted to prosecutors for consideration of criminal charges.
Efforts by The Star to reach the boy’s mother have been unsuccessful. Neighbors say she has not been seen at the building since she was taken to a hospital last week.
Neighbors have told The Star the boy’s mother lived in the building for years, including one who recalled her living there since the time she was pregnant with Grayson. He was born in December 2017. Public records and Facebook posts further show the mother and son had lived at the building since at least 2019.
Kansas City police on Tuesday shared a full list of calls to the entire apartment building at 1006 Grand Blvd. between May 2017 and Nov. 30.
The most recent call to Grayson’s apartment, according to police records, was on Jan. 14. It is described as a disturbance and standby to keep the peace.
In November 2021, police were also called to the apartment to check the welfare of an emotionally disturbed person who was threatening suicide.
Police were called there on five other recorded disturbances spanning from January 2019 until October 2020. The earliest call listed for The Star’s requested time frame was Feb. 21, 2018, when officers were called to perform a residence check.
Records released to The Star contain little detail of the events that prompted the calls, or a description of their resolution, other than to list out cases in which a report was taken.
Many of the other calls provided in the records request only list the apartment building as an address and do not contain apartment numbers. Additionally, calls that fall outside the scope of required disclosure under Missouri’s Sunshine Law and “involve law enforcement sensitive information” were not included in the list provided to The Star.
One incident absent from the list of calls for service to the building is the medical call during which Grayson was found dead in the alley. And one of the neighbors who spoke to The Star recalled an incident involving Grayson’s apartment on a date in September that was not listed among the records police provided.
The latest information about police activities at the Kansas City apartment building where the boy lived comes as several neighbors have told The Star of concerns they had about Grayson over the years.
Those concerns included a lack of food in the apartment, loud and abusive yelling directed at Grayson and cases where he was left unsupervised. One neighbor has said she saw bruises on him that she suspected were caused by parental abuse.
Meanwhile, the sudden death of the boy has shaken a tight-knit group of building residents who say they looked out and cared for Grayson, along with others across Kansas City. Over the weekend, a memorial service was held in honor of Grayson near the place where he was found dead.
The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 5, 2023 at 8:42 PM.
