Jury finds KC man guilty of fatally shooting former co-worker at Riverside QuikTrip
A Platte County jury found a Kansas City man guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the shooting of a former coworker at a Riverside gas station.
The jury found Daniel Kelati, 55, guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action after a two-day trial for his role in the Oct. 9, 2021, shooting of Tariku Fite, Tanya Faherty, a spokesperson for the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office, said in a news release Wednesday.
Officers with the Riverside Police Department responded to the area of 4600 NW Gateway Ave. just after 12:30 p.m. that day upon reports of a shooting at a QuikTrip gas station.
Investigators found Fite lying next to a gas pump with a gunshot wound to the head, Faherty said. He was declared dead at the scene.
According to the news release, Kelati, who was parked behind Fite at the gas station, approached investigators and said, “Officer, I am the one. I kill him. He follow me. I am the one. I kill him.”
In a search of Kelati’s vehicle, detectives found a handgun in the driver’s seat, the news release said. The gun’s ammunition matched that of a spent shell casing found at the scene.
Kelati called 911 to report the incident, telling a police dispatcher that he had killed a man who had been following him.
Faherty said surveillance footage from a nearby animal hospital showed that Kelati had followed Fite in his vehicle.
A witness told investigators Kelati and Fite had worked for the same trucking company and knew each other.
Kelati is being held in the Platte County Jail, according to the detention center’s inmate listing. He is set to appear for a sentencing hearing on June 29.
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed reporting.
