KC man gets 20-year sentence after plea in illegal after-hours club mass shooting
A Kansas City man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in connection with a 2023 mass shooting that killed three people and injured others outside an auto shop operating an illegal after-hours nightclub, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Keivon M. Greene, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of second-degree felony murder and one count of unlawful use of a weapon, Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said in a social media post.
Prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action, and an additional weapons count. The plea comes weeks before Greene was to stand trial. A jury trial was scheduled for mid-June.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Jalilah Otto sentenced Greene to 16 years on each murder count and four years on the weapons charge. The murder sentences will run concurrently, and the weapons sentence will run consecutively, for a total of 20 years.
The mass shooting unfolded around 4:30 a.m. June 25, 2023, outside the former Perfect Touch Auto Detail, where after-hours parties were held, near East 57th Street and Prospect Avenue.
The shooting claimed the lives of three victims, including 28-year-old Jasity J. Strong, 29-year-old Camden M. Brown and 22-year-old Nikko A. Manning.
According to court documents, surveillance video from a nearby building showed that just before the shooting, multiple people and vehicles were gathered outside the shop. The video showed a man in a white shirt walking up to two females standing in the street at East 57th Street between Prospect and Wabash avenues.
After a short conversation, the man, who police identified as Greene, walked westbound on 57th before stopping to talk to a man about 25 feet away, according to court documents. Moments later, the video showed another male walking up to the females and hugging them. Another male walked over to the person who hugged the females and started talking to him.
Fifteen seconds later, Greene walked back over toward the two females and began shooting into the group, according to court documents. Greene then allegedly turned and started shooting at a group of people in the parking lot at 57th and Prospect.
The killings, which came in what turned out to be Kansas City’s deadliest year, led to the city revoking the business licenses at 5644 and 5646 Prospect Avenue and ordering the businesses operating “unlicensed clubs” there to be closed.
