‘A season of lawlessness’ KC reports 102 homicides in 6 months. These are the victims

Kansas City recorded its 102nd homicide Saturday night, continuing what the mayor called “a season of lawlessness” as the city spiraled toward a new record for killings.

Mayor Quinton Lucas kicked off 2020 with an ambitious and, as it turns out, wildly optimistic commitment to reduce the number of homicides in the city to fewer than 100 this year. By July 2 — just past the midway point of the year — Kansas City had already surpassed the 100-homicide mark with no sign of the violence abating.

Just in the last week, two police officers were shot and a 4-year-old — the city’s youngest homicide victim this year — was killed while he was sleeping.

“Four-year-olds, police officers, everyone,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star. “It is unsafe right now. This has been a season of lawlessness in our city and it needs to stop.”

In the three years Rick Smith has been chief of police, Kansas City has recorded two of its deadliest years ever. In 2020, the city is on a dizzying pace to set a record for homicides.

At this time last year, Kansas City had recorded 68 homicides. The year ended with 153. The bloodiest year was 2017, when 155 homicides were recorded.

With the city now on pace for its deadliest year, the question must be asked: Are the mayor and police chief prepared to meet this moment? Despite pledges to reform policing and reduce homicides, the current approach to preventing violent crime has failed miserably.

Now what? Lucas and Smith must lay out a comprehensive plan for making our city safer.

Lucas told The Star Editorial Board that the mayor, the police department and other law enforcement entities must come to grips with reality.

“We need to realize we are not cutting it,” he said.

Thomas Abt, author of “Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence — and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets,” said that without a focused and balanced approach, authorities have no shot at reducing violent crime. It’s not just about policing — mental health and other social services are needed as well.

In Kansas City, the police department has struggled to build trust and relationships in many neighborhoods.

“When people don’t trust the police, they don’t use them,” Abt said. “You have to repair that connection between police and the community.”

Lucas said that “every institution, be it the prosecutor’s office, the police department, the judges, the county, all of us — and certainly me as the mayor — need to step up in terms of our commitment and seeing this challenge addressed.”

That work must start now.

Kansas City’s 101 homicide victims

Kansas City has seen so many killings that in most cases, we hear little about the victims. Their names too often are forgotten. They are treated as numbers added to the ever-growing tally, known primarily as the 100th homicide victim, the 101st homicide victim of 2020, and so forth.

But they are people, with families and stories and lives that were suddenly cut short.

On January 5, 41-year-old Earl Finch became Kansas City’s first homicide this year. Finch was shot multiple times in broad daylight on Walrond Avenue. Officers found him dead in a driveway.

Four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, the city’s 95th homicide victim of the year,

was killed last Monday in the early morning hours while asleep in his room at the Citadel Apartments near 63rd Street and The Paseo. Diagnosed with pulmonary regurgitation, LeGend had been awaiting a second heart operation when he died.

Two days later, Darren Marshall, 28, was shot to death near Chestnut Avenue and East 27th Street. Sharon Douglas, 41, was fatally shot the same day while riding an ATV in south Kansas City.

The city’s oldest homicide victim, 68-year-old Larry A. Green was killed on April 25.

Two more people were killed Thursday, including a suspect who critically injured a Kansas City police officer in one of two officer-involved shootings.

Of the 102 people killed through Sunday, more than half — 54 in all — were between the ages of 17 and 34. Most of those killed — 63 — were Black men.

Has our city simply become inured to the carnage? Those who lost their lives should not be nameless, faceless victims who are just statistics during the city’s deadliest year.

With that in mind, The Star Editorial Board is publishing the names of every homicide victim from this year.

Kansas City should mourn this loss of life, remember the victims and vow to put a stop to the violence.

The victims’ names

These are the 102 people killed in Kansas City this year as of Sunday. Seven victims have not been identified.

Earl Finch, 41

Raphael Lee, 32

DeAndre Chiney, 21

Treshaun Hawkins, 17

Georgia Petsch, 38

Tina Moore, 36

Derrick Smith, 31

Bobby J. Wallace, 18

Raeven Parks, 25

Jahron Swift, 29

Chase Byers, 23

Amanda J. Dillon, 32

Andre Tolan, 22

Phillis Banks, 61

Miguel Padilla, 16

Lavance Ellis, 48

Richard Davis, 29

Derrick Wallace, 31

Christopher Quntin, 44

Joshua Downing, 37

Derrick Donahue, 22

Anthony Rice, 31

Kirin J. Logan, 20

Rolando Perez-Garcia, 62

Antonio Smith, 39

David William Irving, 35

Devon Nolan, 34

Devin Harris, 17

Frederick Outley, 28

Joseph P. Delgado, 30

Deandre Magice, 35

Manuel Rodriguez-Garcia, 38

Michael E. Burton, 53

Barron Shelton, 43

Donnie Sanders, 47

Stacey Witherspoon, 47

Sammi J. Weyer, 27

Thomas B. Willett, 29

Gaklin Kuku Kori, 27

Montai Duncan, 29

Travis Stamper, 39

Elijah K. Zakka, 44

Damen Taylor, 18

Shea D. Henry, 27

Monrico Roseberry, 35

Felipe Carillo, 41

Daniel Washington, 33

Martez Torrence, 19

Larry A. Green, 68

Anna Velazquez, 35

Kashawn Haskell, 24

Christopher Davis, 20

Stan Butler, 62

Terence Rodgers, 24

Frederick Tolbert, 24

Mauricia Strother, 18

Charles Shirley, 41

William C. Shimp, 34

Cleveland Fuller III, 36

Michael L. Groves, 42

Tyler Genson, 22

Carlos M. Starr, 38

Scott Collier, 32

Jeremy Sartain, 32

Marvin A. Lorthridge, 38

Howard E. West, 46

Jevonte D. Clark, 27

Tevin Grimmett, 25,

Victor Garrett, 21

Sarah Lowrey, 42

Matis Vallardo, 32

Anton Martin, 40

Steven Newby, 36

Destiny Smith, 20

Anthony Ford Jr., 22

Marvin Francois, 50

Clarence A. Lyons, 16

Ivory Harris, 63

Emmit Martin, 33

Trevieance Ivey, 21

Montel Ridley, 27

Matthew Cox, 19

Trinton Phillips, 21

William Slyter, age unknown

Marcus Stone, 22

Dejon Bommon, 23

Jamie Williams, 48

Paul Garcia, 50

Romello Shipman, 22

Clyde Harris, 19

LeGend Taliferro, 4

Darren E. Marshall, 28

Sharon M. Douglas, 45

Ky Johnson, 31

Pierre C. Hill-Williams, 27

This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 3:41 PM.