Around 11 a.m. Sunday, Andy Brown stood just outside the yellow police tape and stared down the street.
His only child was lying on the ground with a white sheet covering his body. Dozens of orange evidence cones dotted the street nearby.
“There sits my son,” Brown said.
Camden Brown, 27, was one of three victims killed in a shooting near 57th and Prospect Avenue. 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.
Just after 4:30 a.m., the Kansas City Police Department responded to a parking lot near the intersection.
A heavy police presence remained at the scene as of 11 a.m. Loved ones milled around near the intersection of 57th and Wabash. Some cried or hugged or prayed.
Andy Brown said it was disrespectful that his son’s body had not yet been moved or at least shielded from the sun. Earlier, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves had said the scene was large and was still being processed.
Andy Brown said witnesses had told him that an after hours party was going on when someone was told to leave. The person returned with a gun.
Camden Brown and his girlfriend were running when he was caught in the crossfire and shot in the back.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Andy Brown said.
He said he does not think much can be done about gun violence. Some people believe having a gun makes them a big shot, he said, but it doesn’t. Andy Brown added that he thinks the after hours space should be shut down.
“People do stupid shit,” he said.
Ongoing gun violence
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.
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.
Graves said it was frustrating that the city was involved in so many efforts to reduce violent crime, but the homicide rate continues to climb. She said some witnesses had not been cooperative and also said these investigations are difficult for the police department’s officers.
They see family members who are crying and “we absorb that,” Graves 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.
Mayor Quinton Lucas previously told that the new initiative addresses crime prevention, intervention, enforcement and police reform.
“So we’re gonna keep trying, and I know people sometimes get frustrated and say, ‘It always feels like there’s a new plan,’” Lucas said. “Of course, as long as there are murderers on our streets we will always have new plans and initiatives to try to get things resolved.”
Some community activists expressed skepticism in the plan and worried it would be another violence prevention program launched with great promise that eventually lost momentum.
“I look at it as lip service for now,” said Steve Young, who leads the Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project or KC LEAP.
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.