Homicide suspect is confronted by tearful widow after five-hour standoff in KC neighborhood
Kristin Ziade was in tears as she rushed from her husband’s funeral Thursday to a Kansas City neighborhood where police and FBI agents sought a man accused of killing him.
After a five-hour standoff near the 2700 block of Highland Avenue, Kansas City police arrested Willie E. Parker, charged with murder in the shooting death of Michel Ziade last month.
Kristin said she recognized the man as Parker. “You killed my husband,” she shouted as police led the man away from the house.
Kristin was accompanied by her mother and other relatives, some still dressed in black, who were with her at the funeral earlier Thursday when they received a call alerting them of the situation on Highland Avenue.
“I wanted him to know I was here,” she said. “It will never bring back my husband, but at least I know he has been caught.”
Police had been seeking Parker since the July 28 shooting of Michel Ziade, owner of a medical transportation company in the 3900 block of Rainbow Boulevard, near the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan.
Michel and Kristin ran the company together. Parker was an employee of the company. Prosecutors in Kansas have charged him with first-degree murder.
The standoff began about 1 p.m. when FBI agents with a fugitive task force and police from Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., surrounded the house, acting on a tip. Law enforcement negotiators talked to the man during the afternoon until he exited the house and surrendered about 5:30 p.m.
A neighbor, Jim Pitts, said he listened for hours as a law enforcement officer used a megaphone to speak to the man in the house. The officer repeatedly told the man to come out with his hands up and he would not be harmed. At times, the man was offered water and assurances that he would be listened to.
Kristin Ziade said she felt relief at seeing the arrest. But she still had mourning to do on Thursday and said she planned to return to her husband’s burial.
“I don’t even know how I’m going to function every day without my husband,” she said. “He was my best friend, he was my business partner. And (Parker) killed the father of our child.”
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice and Tony Rizzo contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Homicide suspect is confronted by tearful widow after five-hour standoff in KC neighborhood."