Kansas City is living up to its reputation as a violent city after a flurry of shootings over the weekend.
The violence took place in a variety of places including a Raytown Applebee’s and other busy eateries. The shootings left one dead and injured six people, including a a little boy struck by a stray bullet.
But that’s not all. Four people were shot and killed in a home in Kansas City’s Northland. The Platte County Sheriff’s Department went to the house near in the 14000 block of NW 63rd Street in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood outside of Parkville about 9:15 p.m. Sunday on reports of a shooting.
Four people were found dead in the home. They were all adults.
“It is believed that all of the deceased are related and it is believed the suspect is among the individuals in the residence,” the Platte County Sheriff’s Office said
But the violence people are focusing on is that which took place at very public spaces.
A Friday Applebee’s shooting was followed on Saturday by a double shooting inside the popular Lute’s Fried Fish in Midtown Kansas City and then bullets flew at a south Kansas City gas station.
The carnage wasn’t over and by the early hours of Sunday morning two people were shot just south of the downtown loop at the popular “hole in the wall” Town Topic–a must go-to restaurant for tourists and locals.
Kansas City is use to having multiple shootings over the weekends but usually not in such heavily trafficked and public locations. Police do not think the shootings are in any way linked.
The dead man from the Friday shooting was Sammy Holmes from Kansas City, Kan.
Police think Holmes was shot about 6 p.m. in the parking lot of the Applebee’s restaurant at 9339 Missouri 350 Highway. He was found a short time later at a Sonic restaurant, lying in the street near the scene of a vehicle wreck. He died at a hospital.
“This is a busy shopping area,” Capt. Dyon Harper with the Raytown Police Department said. “We believe somebody saw something. Even if they didn’t see the incident itself occur, maybe they saw a vehicle leaving the scene quickly or somebody on foot leaving the scene.”
Victims in other shootings over the weekend survived.
In Kansas City, two employees were shot about 2:30 p.m. Saturday inside Lutfi’s Fried Fish at 3037 Main Street, while the restaurant was open. Someone entered the restaurant and fired multiple shots toward the kitchen, injuring a man and a woman, according to police.
Both victims were taken to a hospital. One was reported to be in critical condition while the other had injuries that did not appear to be life threatening.
A suspect vehicle was seen driving away, headed north on Main Street, but police had no description of it.
Later on Saturday, about 6 p.m., two men engaged in a shootout at a gas station at 3401 Red Bridge Road in south Kansas City.
Kansas City’s homicide rate far out-paces that of New York. New York recorded recorded just 290 homicides in 2017, about 3.4 murders per 100,000 people.
By contrast, Kansas City tallied almost 31 killings per 100,000 residents in 2017.
Some experts say the reason is the number of police officers employed by KC. New York employs about 42 officers per 10,000 residents; Kansas City, just 28 even while KC’s population is spread out over 600 square miles.
other cities like ours are doing a better job of fighting violent crime: In 2017, the murder rates in Indianapolis, Louisville, Charlotte, Denver and Seattle were all lower than Kansas City’s.
Homicide rates in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Nashville are less than half that rate in Kansas City.
