Kansas City man faces Blair’s Law charges in Sunday’s deadly shooting

A Kansas City man faces Blair’s Law charges after allegedly firing a gun at an intersection near 18th and Vine Streets Sunday, killing one and injuring five, according to a press release from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.

Leonard L. Holman, faces one count each of first offense of unlawful discharge of a firearm and resisting/interfering with an arrest, detention or stop, according to the press release.

Several Kansas City Police Department officers were near the Historic Jazz District early Sunday morning when they observed multiple people running from the intersection of 19th and Vine streets around 2 a.m., according to officer Alayna Gonzalez.

As people ran from the area, officers heard multiple people allegedly yelling that someone was armed and firing a gun, Gonzalez said.

Officers ran toward the gunfire, encountering an unresponsive man suffering gunshot wounds, Gonzalez said. The man, identified as 26-year-old Ty’rick D. Henry, was pronounced dead at the scene.

When officers told Holman to drop the firearm and get on the ground, he fled the scene, said Jazzlyn Jordan, communications director for the prosecutor’s office. After he was taken into custody, Holman told police he was “shooting in the air to protect himself.”

An investigation revealed an additional five people — four men and one woman — had been injured in the incident and taken to an area hospital, Gonzalez said.

Officers believe the incident followed an escalating disagreement among a large group of people, Gonzalez said.

City traffic cameras showed Holman retrieve a firearm from his waistband and discharge it in the air “multiple times,” Johnson said.

Hours before the shooting, the Vine district had hosted Kansas City’s 14th annual Heritage Festival, celebrating Juneteenth.

Holman is being held on a $10,000 bond, Johnson said. He is set to appear in court for an initial appearance hearing on July 29, according to a Kansas City court document.

The charges were filed under Blair’s Law, a Missouri law that took effect in Aug. 2024 outlawing the reckless discharge of a firearm within or into the limits of any Missouri municipality.

The law honors 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane, who was struck by a stray bullet at a Fourth of July celebration in 2011.

The Star’s Ilana Arougheti and Kacen Bayless contributed reporting.