Judge clears courtroom after outburst by accused serial killer Fredrick Demond Scott
A judge cleared the courtroom after an outburst by accused serial killer Fredrick Demond Scott during a hearing Monday morning at the Jackson County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City.
“Mr. Scott got upset that the case wasn’t proceeding, and the judge had to clear the courtroom and hallway so he could be led away,” Scott Lauck, a public information officer for the Jackson County Circuit Court, said Tuesday.
Lauck said he was waiting for the judge to enter an order laying out the next steps in the seven-year-old murder case.
Scott, 29, has been accused in the killings of Steven Gibbons, 57; John Palmer, 54; David Lenox, 67; Timothy S. Rice, 57; Mike Darby, 61; and Karen Harmeyer, 64. Most of the fatal shootings took place along the Indian Creek Trail. Harmeyer was killed in Grandview.
Judge Charles McKenzie was scheduled to hear evidence Monday to determine whether Scott was mentally competent to stand trial. But the outburst delayed the hearing.
In June, McKenzie ruled that since two different judges gave conflicting opinions on Scott’s mental competency, state law dictates that a separate hearing should take place to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
Scott, who is Black, gained notoriety for saying he wanted to “kill all white people” in 2014 while enrolled at Center Alternative School in Kansas City. All six of Scott’s victims were white, and five were middle-aged men.
The killings began in 2016 and continued until August 2017, when Scott was arrested.
All of Scott’s victims were fatally shot without warning, some right outside of their homes.
The Star’s Ilana Arougheti provided information for this story.
