KCPD investigates homicide of KCUR reporter. Colleagues say she would’ve changed lives

The fatal shooting of KCUR reporter Aviva Okeson-Haberman is now being investigated by homicide detectives, Kansas City police said Monday.

Okeson-Haberman, 24, was found wounded Friday in her first-floor apartment in the 2900 block of Lockridge Avenue in Kansas City.

Detectives believe Okeson-Haberman was inside her apartment when a bullet was fired from outside the building. She had previously been on life support, but she has since died, according to the Kansas City Police Department.

In a KCUR segment Monday, colleagues remembered Okeson-Haberman as friendly and one of the most conscientious reporters they knew. Her co-workers remain devastated by her killing, they said.

On the air, colleagues recalled that on Friday afternoon, Lisa Rodriguez, KCUR’s news director, called reporter Peggy Lowe and said Okeson-Haberman did not show to a scheduled meeting. She wasn’t responding to texts or emails, either.

“I could tell by the worry in Lisa’s voice that something was terribly wrong,” Lowe told Steve Kraske, the host of KCUR’s “Up to Date.”

Lowe went to Okeson-Haberman’s apartment, but she could not get into her unit. She called police for a welfare check. Lowe and neighbors saw a bullet hole in a window. The tallest of them looked in and saw Okeson-Haberman struggling, her chest heaving.

She was taken to a hospital. On Sunday, KCUR reported that she had died.

Okeson-Haberman covered Missouri government and politics, but she assisted with all types of stories, colleagues recalled Monday.

“She was just relentless in the pursuit of the truth,” Rodriguez remembered in the segment. “She knew when something wasn’t right, and she was about accountability.”

Okeson-Haberman knew government was responsible for the well-being of its residents. That, Rodriguez said, is what drove her to be such a strong reporter. She helped with coverage of City Hall and the coronavirus, and her stories were some of the most “insightful and illuminating that we’d seen.”

Kraske said Okeson-Haberman knew about the power of government because it was important in her own life. She and her two younger sisters were placed in the foster care system when she was 12, Lowe said.

Mark Horvit, a University of Missouri journalism professor, worked with Okeson-Haberman during a legislative session in Jefferson City. He said she always displayed a passion for the projects she undertook. She possessed the unusual ability to find and flawlessly complete professional-level assignments as a student, he said.

“I can’t overstate that this is a loss not just for her family and her friends, but it’s a loss for journalism,” Horvit said. “And it’s a loss for the communities that her work was going to serve.”

Okeson-Haberman had just been promoted to covering Kansas’ foster care and prison systems at the Kansas News Service, as part of a reporting partnership based at KCUR. It was Okeson-Haberman’s dream job, and Rodriguez was excited to see her reporting.

“She was going to change people’s lives in this beat,” Rodriguez told Kraske. “And that’s why she was in this field.”

Rodriguez noted that many families across Kansas City are suffering “unimaginable loss” because of gun violence. As the segment ended, listeners could hear one of Okeson-Haberman’s colleagues take a deep sigh.

Okeson-Haberman was among three people killed in shootings over the weekend in the city. Police have not publicly identified the two other victims, both of whom were fatally shot Sunday.

Mayor Quinton Lucas at a news conference Monday identified one of the victims fatally shot Sunday as Gary Taylor, a personal trainer who left behind “a lot of caring” friends and family. Lucas also mentioned Okeson-Haberman at the beginning of the news conference about COVID-19, saying that Okeson-Haberman “should be with us at this press conference.”

The shooting that killed Taylor also wounded three people near Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine District, where Lucas lives.

Lucas talked with two neighbors who gathered near the crime scene the morning after the shooting. He said he was recently asked if Kansas City’s crime strategies were working.

“Obviously not,” he told The Star.

Lucas said it is fair for Kansas Citians to ask the Board of Police Commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting “what’s next” in combating gun violence. He also said every victim in the city deserves the same public attention paid to their story as Okeson-Haberman.

“Perhaps if we just humanized every victim more,” Lucas said. “I want people to realize the impact it’s having on families and neighborhoods.”

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver on Monday called Okeson-Haberman’s killing an incredible loss for Kansas City. Cleaver said he spoke with her last month, before her life was stolen by the “scourge of gun violence running rampant” in the city and across the country.

“Her passion for justice and truth-seeking was palpable; her commitment to the community was inspiring; and her journalistic ability at such a young age was impressive,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m heartbroken I won’t get another phone call with her on the other end.”

Including Okeson-Haberman’s death, Kansas City has suffered 49 homicides as of Monday afternoon. The city saw 50 killings by this time last year, which ended with the most homicides in a single year in the city’s history.

Gun violence will be the subject of a new, 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 will seek the community’s help.

To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.