Man convicted in 2020 shooting of bus passenger in Northeast Kansas City

Editors note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified the victim as the bus driver, based on incorrect information from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. The victim was a passenger.

A Jackson County jury found a 52-year-old man guilty in the shooting last year of a RideKC bus passenger in Northeast Kansas City, prosecutors announced Friday.

The jury on Thursday convicted Larry J. Harris Jr. of Kansas City of first-degree assault and armed criminal action, both felonies, according to a news release from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.

Harris was accused in the shooting of the passenger on March 30, 2020, at a bus stop near Independence Avenue and Olive Street.

Witnesses told authorities that Harris fired the shot into the bus from the sidewalk as it pulled up, hitting the passenger in the back, according to court documents. The passenger suffered life-threatening injuries.

A date for Harris’ sentencing hearing has not been set.

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 will seek the community’s help.

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