Masked gunmen killed 6-year-old ‘in broad daylight,’ Kansas City, Kansas, family says
Sir’Antonio Brown was playing outside his Kansas City, Kansas, home Wednesday, like he did most days after his kindergarten class let out.
The family was having a good time in the yard, his great-aunt Shawna Davis-Scott said. But around 6 p.m., they heard gunshots near their home in the 3100 block of Greeley Avenue.
“It was multiple, I don’t know how many rounds, that’s how many that we heard,” Davis-Scott said.
Witnesses reported seeing three masked men who had exited a car down the block.
Davis-Scott saw 6-year-old Sir’Antonio lying on the ground. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A day later, as police investigated the shooting, family members talked about the child they had just lost.
The West Park Elementary School student was known for asking his family members how they were doing, a relative said.
“He loved his family,” Davis-Scott said. “One thing that he always asked those that was most important to him almost every day, if we were OK. Down to his grandmother, his mother, his sisters, his aunties, his uncles, his cousins — that 6-year-old felt like he was the protector.”
He also loved karate, the thrill of bikes and food — he was known for running to two nearby homes of family to eat tacos or other leftovers.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department said detectives had located, on the Missouri side of the state line, the maroon sedan believed to have been used in the shooting. The perpetrators have not been caught.
Family said police were also reviewing security videos from around the scene. They believe the shooters were aiming for someone else and hit Sir’Antonio.
At least 34 gunshots were fired.
“I think it is the most ignorant thing that could ever happen to any community,” Davis-Scott said.
KCKPD Deputy Police Chief George Sims said the Kansas City Police Department, ATF and FBI are assisting with the case.
“We’re all devoting everything to this investigation that we can to get this again, brought to a rapid conclusion,” he said.
“This wasn’t just mere recklessness, this was a very intentional, deliberate act,” Sims said. “It would have been very apparent to anybody that he was there,” Sims said.
Police Chief Karl Oakman said those responsible will be brought to justice.
“We got some ideas about who we think may have done it,” he told The Star.
“The fact that they did it in broad daylight is telling about how, once again, everyone has guns and no one cares who they’re shooting at or what they’re shooting, and we need the community to continue to work with us and come together.”
Since January, police reported no violent crime calls for service for the area between 29th and 35th Streets and Greeley Avenue until Wednesday’s shooting, according to police. There have been numerous noise complaints, a stolen car, and a number of abandoned vehicle calls, police said Thursday.
Twelve youths under age 20 have been killed this year in the Kansas City metro, according to data tracked by The Star. At least ten died from gun violence.
