KC shooting that injured 9 sparks online outrage over safety ahead of World Cup

A shooting that took place off of the 7900 block of Troost Avenue over the weekend has sparked outrage online. Both locals and foreigners have taken to social media to express their frustrations with the event that left nine people injured.

The shooting occurred after a “First Fridays After Hours” party held at an unlicensed venue nearby that started late Friday night and stretched into early Saturday morning. Law enforcement has not linked the party to the shooting, but Mayor Quinton Lucas did.

Lucas posted several statements about the shooting across his social platforms. In an X post, Lucas blamed unlicensed hosts for being “irresponsible” and asking if the “lives changed and too often lost” are worth the money they make from these events.

The location of the shooting is around a 10-minute drive from Swope Soccer Village, where England’s men’s soccer team is set to practice ahead of the World Cup. The Athletic, a sports publication owned by the New York Times, wrote an article claiming the shooting was next to England’s base. The headline ignited criticism among soccer fans and online communities internationally, particularly in Kansas City.

The Athletic’s article calls into question the safety of the city, stating that the high influx of visitors poses significant security challenges for the area.

A British TikTok creator who regularly posts about the World Cup reacted to The Athletic’s post frustrated with how close the shooting occurred to Thursday, when the World Cup kicks off in Mexico. “Why are people getting shot one week before The World Cup,” he said in the video, which had over 34,000 views within the first 21 hours of it posting.

Some comments under the video suggested that the headlines were “sensationalism” and argued that the shooting was not as close to England’s base as some media platforms made it seem. Others claimed shootings are a “daily event” in Kansas City, with one user telling visitors not to worry as “tourists for major sporting events are left alone (for the most part).”

“Honestly I can’t remember a World Cup with issues like this in my lifetime,” Reddit user, The_463, commented on a post in r/ThreeLions, a subreddit dedicated to the English National Team.

Another foreign user created a video questioning FIFA’s decision to host the international event in the U.S. “when this stuff happens all the time.”

Some locals have made an effort to ease the anxiety of travelers, arguing that the shooting, which injured nine people, was actually not a common occurrence for the city.

“If this was in the UK and there was a violent incident would it be reported as being within roughly x miles of a Premier League training facility?,” queried Facebook user, Brian Laing, in a comment under media company Football Away Days’ post.

Another Reddit user, Uselessdemographic, said that gun violence is a serious issue in America, but shootings like this aren’t common in the Kansas City area, in a comment under a post about the Athletic’s article in the r/soccer subreddit.

The weekend saw more violence than just the Troost shooting. A double homicide was reported in a Westport gas station, and fights broke out at a Lee’s Summit festival. A Kansas City local posted a TikTok video shocked at how many separate events occurred in a short time span. “How do you have 17 people shot in one weekend?” he said in the video, which now has nearly 9,000 views.

This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 2:25 PM.