Kansas City Family Dollar shooting leaves 1 dead, 2 injured Wednesday afternoon: Police
One person was killed and two others were injured late Wednesday afternoon in a shooting that unfolded near the checkout line of a Family Dollar in Kansas City’s North Hyde Park neighborhood, according to police.
Officers were dispatched to the store around 5 p.m. on a report of a shooting as people were shopping inside, said Sgt. Jake Becchina, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman. Responding officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds in the business when they arrived, Becchina said.
He was taken away by ambulance and pronounced dead at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Becchina said, police learned two other gunshot victims — a man with life-threatening injuries and a woman with less severe injuries — had shown up at the hospital. They arrived there by a private vehicle, Becchina said.
Early findings of the investigation pointed to a disturbance that began inside the store involving several people that escalated to a point where multiple shots were fired by more than one person, Becchina said.
All three gunshot victims were injured inside the store, Becchina said, and detectives were still working out the precise order of events.
Becchina said detectives were gathering information from surveillance video and witnesses as crime scene investigators processed the area for physical evidence. He added that police were still determining who all was involved and what roles they played in the shooting.
The killing Wednesday marked the 77th homicide in Kansas City so far in 2023, according to data maintained by The Star. It also comes as the city experienced one of the greatest surges of violence this year over the Memorial Day weekend.
Earlier Wednesday, city leaders — Mayor Quinton Lucas, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and Police Chief Stacey Graves — gathered to publicly address the weekend violence.
“Seven families in our city have been changed forever,” Graves said, referencing the seven homicides in the city between Friday night and Memorial Day. “This is a call for action. Our department will continue to show up, but we need the community.”
Kansas City police were asking anyone with information about Wednesday afternoon’s homicide to contact detectives at 816-234-5043 or call the TIPS Hotline anonymously at 816-474-TIPS.
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed to this report.
