Six years later, man charged for fatal shooting at Cloverleaf Apartments
Over six years after a fatal shooting at a Kansas City apartment complex, a Grandview man has been charged with second-degree murder in connection to the shooting.
Demetrius Hill was charged with one count of second-degree murder in Jackson County court on Tuesday for his alleged role in the 2019 shooting death of 22-year-old Logan Ruckman at the now-defunct Cloverleaf Apartments in south Kansas City.
Officers with the Kansas City Police Department responded to the apartments around 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019, on reports of a shooting, according to a probable cause statement in support of Hill’s arrest.
There, detectives found Ruckman in the driver’s seat of a gray Dodge Durango in the complex’s parking lot, the statement said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Surveillance footage of the scene showed a person, who become a suspect, arriving in a gray Ford Escape, according to the probable cause statement.
Ruckman and Hill then arrived and parked at the complex in a gray Dodge Durango, the court document said. The first suspect approached Ruckman’s car and attempted to open the rear driver’s-side door, which appeared to be locked.
The suspect had a brief conversation with Ruckman through the driver’s-side window before walking away, according to the court document.
As the suspect walked away from the vehicle, surveillance footage showed smoke coming from the car’s exhaust, the probable cause statement said. The suspect then turned around towards Ruckman’s car and fired a gun in his direction.
Hill then exited Ruckman’s vehicle before entering the Ford Escape with the first suspect, the court document said. The pair left the scene.
On Aug. 14, 2019, investigators received an anonymous tip from the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline indicating Hill and the first suspect were involved in the fatal shooting, according to the probable cause statement.
The informant told detectives the fatal shooting was initially a “planned robbery involving narcotics,” the probable cause statement said.
During a review of Ruckman’s Facebook data, detectives found accounts tied to Hill and the first suspect had been used to communicate with Ruckman days before his death, according to the probable cause statement. A phone number belonging to the first suspect showed that that phone had been used to contact Ruckman prior to the shooting.
On Oct. 1, 2019, a witness told detectives that on the day of the shooting, the first suspect arrived at his apartment and told him, “I’m ‘bout to hit this lick real quick,” the probable cause statement said.
The witness watched the incident unfold from an apartment window, the court document said. Several days later, the witness said he met with a man who told him he had been with the suspects when the fatal shooting occurred.
The man told the witness he had known the first suspect and Hill for six months, and that Hill was involved in a gang, according to the probable cause statement. The man said Hill was “threatening” anyone who knew of his involvement in the shooting.
Detectives attempted to interview Hill on Jan. 14, 2020, at an Arkansas detention center, the court document said. Hill requested to speak to an attorney.
On Feb. 2, 2023, investigators interviewed the witness that had spoken to them in 2019, according to the probable cause statement. The witness positively identified photographs of Hill and the two other suspects.
Detectives received DNA analysis results on Feb. 7, 2025, connecting Hill’s DNA to a cigarillo located in Ruckman’s car, according to the probable cause statement.
Hill is currently incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections, serving sentences for unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with a witness, according to the probable cause statement.
A warrant for his arrest was issued on Tuesday.
The first suspect identified in the crime was killed in homicide in 2023, according to a press release from Jazzlyn Johnson, director of communications for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
