The morning after his 22nd birthday, Nikkia Manning watched her son die.
After celebrating with friends and family, her son Nikko Manning met up with his parents at a relative’s home on Kansas City’s East Side.
Nikkia Manning wanted to get out of her heels and grab a pair of green flats from her car. Nikko asked to go with her, to make sure she was safe.
While they were next to the car, gunfire broke out at 57th Street and Prospect Avenue. Nikko was shot, and his mother performed CPR until the ambulance arrived.
“It wasn’t enough to save him.”
Her son was pronounced dead at the scene. Nikko was one of three people killed in the Sunday morning shooting Another man and a woman were also killed, police said.
Officers responded just after 4:30 a.m. to the intersection, where they found the victims shot and unresponsive in a parking lot and the street just south of the intersection, said Sgt. Jake Becchina a spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department.
Five additional shooting victims were taken to different hospitals by ambulance or private vehicle and are believed to have injuries that are not life threatening.
‘The kindest kid’
At 9 am Sunday, Nikkia Manning still had a smudge of her son’s blood on her face and specks of it between the crystals on her bracelet.
Her family moved from Kansas City to Blue Springs to escape the threat of gun violence. But a stray bullet still took his life.
“He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Nikkia Manning said. “It happened so fast. I just can’t believe it.”
While he attended Blue Springs High School, she said her son played football, volunteered at a homeless shelter and traveled to Jamaica to build homes for people in need. Growing up, he won awards in school for being kind and polite.
“My son was the kindest kid you’d meet,” she said.
Ongoing gun violence
Including Sunday’s shooting, there have been 97 homicides in Kansas City so far this year, according to data tracked, which includes fatal police shootings. At this time last year, there had been 74 killings.
Mayor Quinton Lucas shared his condolences with families of the victims on Twitter and said the incident allegedly happened at an after-hours gathering near the intersection.
“If the business knew persons would be present, without security, selling alcohol, and thwarting our laws, that business should be closed,” he said. “And similarly situated businesses operating as unlicensed clubs where we have seen countless shootings and murders should expect the same enforcement action.”
Lucas said unlicensed businesses and Airbnbs have become major areas for homicides and other crimes. He alleged one person was murdered in another part of the city at what appears to be an Airbnb and said the city is working to delist short-term rentals breaking laws and allowing violent crime to persist.
The killings come about one month after a shooting at Klymax Lounge, 4242 Indiana Ave., just 2.5 miles away that killed three people and injured two.
By some definitions, both incidents could be considered mass shootings.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, an incident in which at least four people are injured or killed besides the shooter can be considered a mass shooting. Other organizations, like Everytown for Gun Safety, say that if at least four people other than the shooter are fatally shot, the incident is a mass shooting.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said officials talked with community members near the scene about violence in the city and what can be done to reduce shootings.
“People start out at such an escalated point that if there’s a disagreement or an argument or anger, some people in Kansas City are just too quick to reach for guns,” she said.
In May, Graves announced the Violent Crime Reduction Initiative, a partnership between police, county prosecutors, crime-fighting groups, federal authorities and city agencies. Since Graves hosted a news conference announcing the citywide initiative on May 17, there have been 36 homicides in Kansas City.
Anyone who was in the area at the time and heard or saw anything is asked to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. A reward of up to $25,000 is available for information submitted to TIPS that leads to an arrest.