Man dies week after shooting in Kansas City’s Northland
A 34-year-old man has died after being critically injured in a shooting near an apartment complex in Kansas City’s Northland in late April, a police spokesman said.
The victim was identified as Robert R. Smith, who died about a week after the shooting.
Police responded to the shooting shortly after noon on April 29 near the Timberline Apartments and Townhomes at Northeast 38th and North Holmes streets in the city’s River View neighborhood, said Capt. Jake Becchina of the Kansas City Police Department.
There, officers found Smith lying in the street just south of Northeast 38th Street suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, and the hospital notified detectives on Wednesday that he had died from his injuries.
Police took a suspect into custody nearby, and the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office charged Carlos Dimargio Crosby on April 30 with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
According to court documents, witnesses told police that Smith and another person were walking south on North Holmes near the entrance to the apartment complex when Crosby and two others approached them, yelling. They then heard a gunshot and saw Smith lying in the street.
The shooting appears to stem from an altercation Smith and the other person had with one of the people with Crosby at a Pizza Hut two weeks earlier, according to court documents.
One of those involved in the altercation told detectives that he had spotted Smith and the other person walking by and recognized them as being involved in the altercation at the Pizza Hut.
The person confronted the two about fighting, and then ran inside an apartment to get Crosby and another person. The three went back outside to confront Smith.
When questioned by detectives, Crosby allegedly said he was awakened by the person who had spotted Smith and the other person walking by, and that one of them had pulled a knife on him.
Crosby told detectives he went outside to confront them, but first grabbed his handgun. He told detectives he approached calmly, telling Smith he needed to chill.
Crosby told detectives that after seeing Smith with a knife, he took a step backward, but Smith walked toward him and started swinging the knife. Crosby said he shot Smith when he was a few feet away. Crosby said he and the two others with him then ran away.
One of those with Crosby told detectives that Crosby had put the gun to Smith’s head and asked, “Do you wanna die?”
A knife with a black and orange handle was among the evidence police found at the scene.
After the shooting, Crosby went to work at a Home Depot in Gladstone, where Kansas City and Gladstone police officers arrested him. Inside his backpack was a handgun and some live 9mm rounds.
Crosby was being held in the Clay County Detention Center on a $1 million bond. He pleaded not guilty to the initial charges earlier this week. A bond review hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The killing is Kansas City’s 42nd homicide of the year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. That compares to 54 homicides by this time last year.
