Man charged with murder in parking lot shooting outside Kansas City convenience store
Jackson County prosecutors have charged a 25-year-old man in a shooting that left one man dead Monday night in the parking lot of a Paseo Boulevard convenience store in Kansas City’s Manheim Park neighborhood.
Christopher Lockett, of Blue Springs, faces charges of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful weapon use and stealing a vehicle, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday. Lockett is accused of fatally shooting 24-year-old DeMarkus Pleasant and leaving him outside the Paseo Fast Stop.
Lockett was being held Tuesday on a $250,000 bond in the Jackson County jail.
Kansas City police officers were dispatched to a reported shooting around 9:15 p.m. Monday in the 4500 block of Paseo Boulevard. Responding police officers found Pleasant suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
On the night of the shooting, officers were told one person had run away from the area who was detained roughly two blocks away.
During an interview with detectives, the witness said he had driven to the Fast Stop to get cash from the ATM while Lockett and Pleasant were in the back seat of his white sedan. He returned to the car as the pair were arguing.
The witness told police that Lockett got out of the car and fired several rounds at Pleasant, who was still in the back seat. Lockett then turned the gun toward the witness and told him to get out of the driver’s seat, according to court documents.
Witnesses to the shooting said they ran away afterward.
Surveillance video from nearby captured images of the shooting. In the video, according to charging documents, a man is seen firing a gun into a parked Nissan Altima.
The video then shows the gunshot victim being dragged out of the backseat through the driver’s side door. Then the shooter gets in the car and drives away.
On Tuesday, a search warrant was served at Lockett’s residence in Blue Springs. He was arrested there and declined to speak with police without an attorney present, according to court documents.
Online court records did not list a defense attorney for Lockett as of Tuesday.
