11 people shot in Kansas City in 3-hour period over Fourth of July holiday, police say
In just over a three-hour period, from late on July 4 to the wee hours of July 5, 11 people were reported shot in Kansas City in separate incidents.
In one of the shootings, the victim, identified as 28-year-old Deangelo Wallace, died.
Kansas City police were called to the intersection of 12th and Locust streets at 12:30 a.m. on July 5. A passerby found the young man unresponsive in the area near the Jackson County Courthouse. Wallace was declared dead at the scene.
The department’s preliminary investigation suggests Wallace and an unknown male suspect were involved in an argument, police spokesman Jacob Becchina said in an email. Detectives were working hard to identify and locate a suspect.
Wallace’s death marked the 78th homicide this year in Kansas City, according to data maintained by The Star. There had been 102 homicides by the same time last year, which was the deadliest in the city’s history with 182 homicides.
Before the fatal shooting downtown, violence was already mounting.
July 4
▪ 10:20 p.m. Kansas City police were called to the area of Northwest Waukomis Drive and North Robin Hood Lane, where they found a woman, shot, lying in the street. A witness told police that the victim was shot near the area of 69th Street and Swope Parkway, but police were unable to find any evidence of the shooting at the location. An ambulance took the victim to a local hospital. No information about her condition was available at the time and the suspect is unknown.
▪ 10:40 p.m. Police were dispatched to St. Luke’s Hospital to interview the first of four gunshot victims in what appeared to be a related incident. there were four shooting victims — three men and one woman. The first victim, a male, entered St. Luke’s with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, which he said he got at a club near 43rd Street and Indiana Avenue. He chose not to identify the suspect or to prosecute. Officers went to the crime scene soon after.
At 11:15 p.m. another male victim entered a different hospital — Research Medical Center — with a gunshot wound, which was not life-threatening. Nine minutes later, the third victim entered the hospital with another non-life threatening injury.
At 11:43 p.m., police were at Swope Parkway and Meyer Boulevard when they where approached by several people in a vehicle yelling for help. A front passenger, an adult woman, had also suffered a single gunshot wound from the same crime scene. She was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
July 5
▪ 12:25 a.m. Police were dispatched to a shooting at Blue Parkway and Oakley Avenue. As they were responding, a woman suffering multiple gunshot wounds drove herself to a nearby hospital. She was quickly taken to surgery for life-threatening wounds. The only information the woman provided was that she was at a house near 47th Street and Sni-a-Bar Road when she was shot, but would not provide the alleged shooter’s name or address.
▪ 12:27 a.m. Officers were dispatched to a reported shooting in the 11400 Block of Palmer Avenue where three people were shot. Police arrived to find two female victims near a car parked in front of a house. The first victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. The second woman was shot in her right leg. The injury was not life-threatening. While at the scene, police received word that a third victim, a male, had entered a hospital and said he had been shot at the same location.
▪ 1:25 a.m. A woman arrived by car at Research Medical Center. A witness told police they were driving through Swope Park, near the Meyer Boulevard, entrance, when a shot was fired into the vehicle, striking the woman. Her injuries were said to be serious, but not life threatening.
Gun violence is the subject of a statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star seeks the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
