KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five people were killed in less than 24 hours in a particularly violent period across the Kansas City area.
Four of the homicides occurred in Kansas City with the fifth in Kansas City, Kansas. One killing took place Tuesday at a middle school, another later that day in broad daylight.
Kansas City has recorded 41 homicides so far this year. At this time last year, the city had suffered 42 homicides. Last year became the second deadliest year on record following a record number of slayings in 2020.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he hopes to address violence prevention.
"We can't keep having violence like this, let it be episodic in some ways, like we saw yesterday, and then just move on like it didn't happen," Lucas said.
The recent killings also has Lucas looking at ways to use federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act to help fund anti-violence prevention programs across the city.
Kansas City is scheduled to receive a total of $195 million from the federal government. City leaders will determine how the money is spent.
"These aren't things necessarily that just more enforcement, just more money to the police department would have solved and would have stopped," Lucas said.
Kansas City's high homicide rate has been a persistent problem. In January 2020, Lucas wrote an op-ed for The Star saying reducing violent crime was his top priority.
That year ended up being the deadliest year in the city's recorded history with 182 homicides. In 2021, the city saw 157 killings, the second deadliest year.
Lucas said he hopes to help stop violence using federal funds distributed from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March 2021. One of those initiatives could fund mental health services for youth. Lucas said his office had received a plan from Children's Mercy Hospital that would expand those services at an estimated cost of $3 million.
"We've got a mental health crisis in Kansas City and it's not just young people," Lucas said. "But I think yesterday, we saw more than ever how much it impacts our young people."
City leaders across the country have announced they would use ARPA funds to help decrease violence in their respective cities. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones announced in August 2021 that $11.5 million of the $500 million the city was set to receive would go toward addressing the root causes of crime and to improve public safety.
In Kansas City, it's unclear how much will be devoted towards violence prevention.
"There's not nearly enough that will be used," Lucas said. "I know it's a helluva lot less than $269 million a year that we spend on policing."
Last month, officials allocated $269 million to the Kansas City Police Department.
The first violent incident started with a stabbing at Northeast Middle School just after 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Officers were called to the school at 4904 Independence Avenue and found 14-year-old Manuel Guzman inside a bathroom with stab wounds. Emergency medical crews responded and took him to a hospital.
The school went into lock down and police closed streets in the area immediately surrounding the school. Students were let out of class early and reunited with their families. Parents there told The Star they received worrisome calls from their children as the students were locked down in classrooms.
Guzman died as a result of his injuries Tuesday evening. A student has been charged with murder.
Around 4 p.m. officers were dispatched to the intersection of 12th Street and Hardesty Avenue on a reported shooting, according to Officer Donna Drake, a police department spokeswoman. Officers found a gunshot victim just off the road near the intersection, Drake said.
Emergency medical personnel declared the woman dead at the scene. She has not been publicly identified.
Around 8:30 p.m., police were dispatched to the intersection of 39th and Indiana Avenue in the Oak Park Southeast neighborhood on a reported shooting. There, officers found a man inside a car who had been shot, Drake said.
The victim was taken by ambulance to the hospital and pronounced dead roughly 30 minutes later. The man has not yet been identified by police.
A couple of hours later across the state line, officers with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department were dispatched just after 10:30 p.m. to a shooting call in the 3700 block of Plaza Drive, according to Officer Thomas Tomasic, a spokesman for the department. A woman was transported to an area hospital where she died from her injuries. She was identified as 35-year-old Lisa McKeehan.
Around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, Kansas City police officers at a non-injury crash at East 38th Street and Wabash Avenue heard several gunshots.
Officers determined the shots had been fired at a nearby home and when they responded to the area, they found three victims.
Emergency medical crews responded to the area and one of the victims was pronounced dead. A second victim was taken to the hospital and was in critical condition. The third had minor injuries and declined medical treatment.
