Police identify 7-year-old, suspected shooter killed this week in Kansas City, Kansas
Police have identified the 7-year-old killed and the man suspected of shooting her — and critically injuring her 3-year-old brother and mother — before turning the gun on himself this week in Kansas City, Kansas.
In a statement Friday, the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, said the child killed was Cariya Reed. Keith Johnson, Jr., 38, the suspected shooter, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a home after Johnson allegedly barricaded himself inside with the kids after shooting their mother at a nearby park, according to police.
The 3-year-old and the mother remain in critical condition at an area hospital, police said Friday.
No motive has been disclosed by authorities about what may have led to the shootings. But the situation appears to have been a deadly domestic issue, as those involved resided in the same Kansas City, Kansas, home.
On Wednesday, police were called around 7 a.m. to the scene of a reported shooting at Welborn Park, near North 55th Street and Jodee Lane. A neighbor who lives across the street from the park alerted authorities to the shooting, Wyandotte County Undersheriff Bob Gunja said at the time.
Arriving officers found a woman who had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the abdomen. The woman, described as being in her late 20s, was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Investigators then went to a nearby apartment complex near North 55th Street and Everett Avenue. Three gunshots were heard by authorities as they were approaching.
The sheriff’s department requested the help of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department’s Special Operations Unit, who used a robot to enter the apartment about an hour after the gunshots were heard.
Police found the children and the suspect inside the residence. The suspect and girl were dead and the boy, who had been shot, was taken to a hospital.
The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Unit is investigating the shooting. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
The Star’s Robert A. Cronkleton and Aaron Torres contributed to this report.
