‘We will never accept this violence.’ Homicide victims to be remembered in candlelight vigil

On the darkest day of the year, faith organizations and the Kansas City community will gather to be bearers of light.

Candlelight will illuminate the faces of grieving families who have lost loved ones in one of the deadliest years on record for Kansas City. Longest Night Ever will, on the winter solstice, honor the memory of this year’s homicide victims by remembering each name: each daughter, son, brother and friend killed in 2023.

“There’s too much hurt, and not enough of us willing to help heal,” said Darron Edwards, pastor of United Believers Community Church. “This is called the Longest Night because… when we have this event, the light doesn’t shine as long.”

“And we need more light in Kansas City, Missouri,” he said.

For 13 years now, the annual Kansas City Longest Night Ever service has worked to support families who come into the holiday season without a loved one who was killed. Churches and other community leaders organize the event in hopes of putting a face and name to the harrowing homicide statistics in Kansas City.

Organizers say the event is a time to care for the families of homicide victims and recommit to making Kansas City a safe place to live.

Record number of homicides

As of Dec. 20, Kansas City has recorded 178 homicides in 2023, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. The Star had previously reported 180 homicides for 2023, but Kansas City Police have since changed the cause of death in one case, and the location of death in another.

The city is experiencing its second deadliest year on record, and remains on pace to exceed or meet its mark for highest number of homicides in a year.

That mark came in 2020, when 182 people were killed.

Last year, Kansas City, Missouri, suffered the second-highest number of homicides in history, with 171 deaths.

Pastor Mark Clifton of the Linwood Baptist Church in Linwood, Kansas, said Longest Night Ever is a positive way to support grieving families, but that much more would need to happen to see lasting change.

He said it will take people getting involved in the community, learning the names of their neighbors and reporting suspicious activity to police.

Event organizers stressed the community can never accept upwards of 175 homicides in a single year as “normal” for Kansas City.

“They are more than just a name across the bottom of the screen on the news. They are very important,” Clifton said. “They deserve to be remembered.”

Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokesperson with the Kansas City Police, said the high homicide rate in the city is “frustrating,” and an especially hard reality around the holiday season.

She said the community and police have been working together to address the “violent crime epidemic,” but said that it’s “hard to catch up.”

“It’s very frustrating,” Gonzalez said outside of a residence near Roberts Street on Dec. 17, where 26-year-old Melissa Brown was shot.

“We want our Kansas Citians to feel safe. … This is a loved one of somebody’s family that isn’t going to be around for Christmas.”

Victim remembrances, candlelight vigil

Longest Night Ever will begin at 7 p.m. on Dec. 21 in the worship center of The Gathering Church, 4505 South Noland Road in Independence. The event is open to everyone in the community, but especially to those who have been personally affected by homicide, Edwards said.

The evening will consist of reading each homicide victim’s name and remembering them by grieving with their families. Organizers say there will be a time of commitment to making Kansas City a safe place to live, and the evening will conclude with an outdoor candlelight vigil.

Crosses with the name of each victim are hammered into the ground on the front lawn of the church — a small gesture of hope to those who may be without it. In years past, families have kept the crosses as a reminder of their loved ones.

Before speaking to the media Wednesday afternoon, Edwards and Clifton walked among the white wooden crosses and secured one of them in the ground. Kansas City Police officers stood nearby as church members hugged and welcomed visitors.

“Our hearts grieve for these loved ones, our hearts grieve for our city, but our grief is informed by hope — that this city really is a good place filled with really good people who can make a difference,” Clifton said.