She wanted a night out in KC for her birthday. A stray bullet outside a bar killed her

Courtney Wickman wanted to do something spontaneous to celebrate her 33rd birthday.

Earlier that week, she celebrated quietly with her younger sister Samantha Wickman, eating dinner together and watching scary movies at home.

But it was the weekend, and Courtney’s 4-year-old daughter Lana was staying with her great-grandmother. The single mother, who was raising her young daughter with the help of her family and the girl’s father, wanted to have a fun night out.

Courtney dressed up that evening in black and fur, relishing the opportunity for a night on the town. She, her sister and a friend went to a rooftop bar on Oct. 21 in Kansas City’s Midtown neighborhood. There, they met friends, had some drinks and laughed.

About an hour later, as they walked outside toward their car, a stray bullet struck Courtney in the head. She was taken to a hospital, but died within days, leaving her family to contend with both grief and unanswered questions — and not for the first time.

Celebration turns to tragedy

October was always a special time of the year for the Wickman sisters.

They celebrated throughout the month, since Samantha was born on the 6th and Courtney on the 18th. They started the month dressing up to attend Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour performance at Arrowhead Stadium.

Then, on the 18th, Samantha went to Courtney’s place after she got off work to celebrate her birthday with food and scary movies, since Halloween was Courtney’s second favorite holiday next to Christmas.

They celebrated again on Oct. 21, with dinner reservations at Cooper’s Hawk in Lee’s Summit. Afterwards, Courtney wanted to go out. Her grandmother was watching her daughter Lana, and her friend Sarah Taillon offered to be their designated driver.

Samantha suggested Boho Sway at Canary, a rooftop bar at 3835 Main St., where a friend could get them into a crowded event for free. There, they met some of Samantha’s friends, who were moving to California soon. Courtney joked about their posh new life near wine country.

She said she felt like Tony Soprano, donning her sister’s long fur-lined black coat and a matching bucket hat.

Around 10:30 that night, they headed out. In the elevator, the ladies ran into another group of women also dressed up for a night out. They exchanged compliments and laughed.

“She was just having the time of her life,” Samantha later said of her sister.

Samantha led the group as they walked toward the parking lot. She was the first to see two security guards with their guns drawn at a woman, who had a firearm pointed back at them. They seemed to be arguing.

“I think they’re the security guards,” Samantha told her sister. “I think they’re the good guys.”

Turning around, she told Courtney and Taillon they should go inside.

Seconds later, they heard gunshots.

‘I just can’t forget it’

All three women dropped to the ground. Samantha and Taillon dove down to protect themselves. But Courtney, they soon realized, had been shot in the head.

As a surgical technologist, Samantha knew her sister’s odds of survival were not good. But still, she tried everything she could. She used her jacket to try and stop the bleeding and tried to call 911, but said someone else got through to dispatchers first.

A security guard tried to drag her away from her sister, but she screamed and begged until they let her sit by Courtney. She watched blood pour from her sister’s head, and saw pieces of her brain on the sidewalk.

“I just can’t forget it,” she later said through tears, in an interview with The Star.

Police arrived and emergency medical crews took Courtney to a hospital with critical injuries.

Samantha would never talk with her sister again. Courtney, by that time, was brain dead and placed on life support, she said.

After their father rushed to Kansas City from their hometown in Ballard, Missouri, they decided to donate Courtney’s organs and take her off life support. She died days after the shooting.

Courtney’s eyes, which were blinded in the shooting, were the only organs that couldn’t be donated, her sister said.

Her death was the 154th homicide in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. There had been 144 killings at the same time last year — the city’s second deadliest year ever recorded.

The suspect, who authorities identified as 21-year-old Katera Mayfield, allegedly shot Courtney by accident and fled the scene, according to police.

Jackson County prosecutors charged Mayfield with assault. Then, police said, it’s believed Mayfield died by suicide. Her death is still under investigation by the Osage County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s not fair,” Samantha later said. “We didn’t know her.”

She thinks security guards at the building, which also houses an apartment complex, should’ve done more to protect them in those final, fateful moments.

Why, she asked, wasn’t one of the two guards instead blocking the door to prevent residents and patrons from leaving when guns were drawn? The decision about whether to turn around should’ve never been her call to make, Samantha believes.

“I feel like we could have been saved,” she said.

A sisters’ bond

Courtney and Samantha had always been close growing up in Ballard, Missouri, a rural town about an hour south of Kansas City.

Of course, they had sisterly fights. If Samantha took Courtney’s clothes, she threatened to make her younger sister take the bus to school. But they were protective of each other, as well.

When Samantha was 14 and Courtney was 17, their mother took her own life in their backyard. In 2018, they learned that their other sister, Alexandria Wickman, was one of two people found dead after a fire at an abandoned house.

Tragedy brought Courtney and Samantha closer together. They promised to support one another, no matter what.

The sisters spent every day together. Samantha brought food to Courtney’s pink and girly home and helped care for Lana. Courtney joked that her sister had taken up the role of a boyfriend in her life.

With tickets from their grandmother, the sisters saw Stevie Nicks at Arrowhead Stadium in August. They loved going to concerts and flea markets and listening to Lana Del Rey, leading Courtney to name her daughter after the singer.

Courtney wanted to get tattoos commemorating their love for the 1998 movie “Practical Magic” for Christmas and travel to Salem, Massachusetts, together next year. She joked that, one day, when Samantha had a baby, she’d come steal it away to spend more time with the child.

Now, Samantha said she’s mourning her sister, and everything they had hoped to do together.

“Nobody can ever replace your big sister,” Samantha said. “I don’t have what I used to have, and it just hurts. People say sorry and that you can still talk to her, but it’s not the same.”

The sisters couldn’t wait to watch as Lana started school and got older.

During Lana’s dance recital this past year, they saw how artistic and talented the older dancers had become. Samantha cried and told Courtney how she could picture Lana growing up to be just like them.

Lana already resembles her mom, Samantha said. Courtney taught her young daughter to be outgoing and to live without fear. She fostered her daughter’s love of music, when she played girl pop anthems that the three of them could dance to in the living room.

“She just loved her so much,” Samantha said, “and it kills me that she doesn’t have her mom anymore.”

A caring friend

Sarah Taillon, who also went out for Courtney’s birthday, said her best friend was a kind person who would always try to help others.

The two first met around 12 years ago when they worked together at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Independence. After leaving the restaurant, they stayed in touch, checking in here and there.

Making friends as an adult is hard, Taillon said. When she met Courtney and saw what a great person she was, she knew it was important to hold onto their friendship.

In September 2022, Taillon’s husband, who had dealt with mental health issues, experienced psychosis. He tried to kill Taillon, leading to a five-hour standoff with police that ended when her husband died by suicide, she said.

Courtney reached out almost every day to help Taillon with her depression and grief. She could always sense when her friends weren’t doing well and invited them to talk, come over for dinner or go swimming.

And, once Taillon was ready to start dating again after about a decade, they’d vent about the “hot garbage” dating experiences they had. They wanted to start a podcast called “Sex in Kansas City” to share anonymous stories of other people’s bad dates.

Even though Courtney wasn’t a sports fan, she invited Taillon, a Chiefs lover, to watch games at her place this year when Taylor Swift started making appearances at Arrowhead. Taillon tried explaining what was happening in the game, but Courtney was laser-focused on spotting the pop phenom.

Knowing how hard it was to lose her husband last year, Taillon said she now tries to check in on Samantha every few days.

Growing up in the Kansas City area, Taillon has seen the problems with gun violence escalate in the city and the country as a whole. But in recent years, she said it feels like officials have lost control of the issue, leaving nowhere that people can feel safe. She believes political leaders need to offer more help to Americans who are struggling financially, as one way to help turn the tide on the violence.

She also thinks people need to find ways to handle their issues that don’t involve guns.

“I understand that life has been unkind to a lot of people,” she said, “but if people would just think before doing things that may take someone out of this world. I just plead that they do think about putting a gun down before just acting out of rage and frustration.”

Fundraising for the Wickmans

Jamie Ramsey, a friend of Samantha who works with her at Lee’s Summit Medical Center, started a GoFundMe on behalf of the surgical department to help provide for Courtney’s daughter Lana and pay for any other expenses that come up.

Ramsey knows all too well what Wickman and her family are going through after Courtney’s senseless killing. In November 2016, her 20-year-old daughter Greican Davidson was shot and killed in the 5500 block of Forest Avenue.

When her daughter died, Ramsey said there were so many expenses and tasks that she hadn’t considered. She hopes the fundraiser can help Samantha with some of them, like paying bills, cleaning out her sister’s home and affording to take time off work to grieve or help her family without worrying that it might impact her ability to pay bills.

As of Wednesday morning, supporters had raised nearly $8,500 to help the family.

Samantha hopes to put money from the fundraiser toward Lana’s future needs. She also wants to create a fund so that one day Lana can pursue future educational opportunities.

Samantha will continue to help care for Lana along with her father and great grandmother. She also took in Onyx, Courtney’s 13-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

“I just had a beautiful family, and we were getting through our losses,” Samantha said. “Now it just feels like life has dealt us another, and I don’t think I’d be staying as strong if I didn’t have Lana to help.”