A fifth person has died after being shot Sunday in Kansas City, police said.
At about 3 a.m. Sunday, as Kansas City police officers were patrolling the area of East 31st Street and Prospect Avenue, they saw multiple people shooting at a vehicle and a person, Sgt. Jake Becchina, with the Kansas City Police Department, said in a news release.
The suspects then fled the scene, Becchina said.
Police officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds, Becchina said. He was taken away in an ambulance with injuries that were life-threatening.
“Additional officers responded to the area to attempt to locate any of the people or vehicles that were initially observed by officers,” Becchina wrote. “This effort was met with negative results.”
The victim was declared dead Sunday afternoon at the hospital, police said. His identity has not yet been made public.
Police are asking anyone with information on the shooting to call KCPD’s homicide unit at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
KCPD is working with Partners for Peace, a community resource for victims, in all homicide investigations to provide social services and monitor risk for retaliation.
About an hour before the shooting on Prospect, police responded to a shooting in the 3600 block of Michigan Avenue. The victim, a 17-year-old boy named Ricky Monroe, died a few hours later at the hospital.
Then, at about 4:30 a.m. near 57th Street and Prospect Avenue, police found two men and one woman fatally shot in a parking lot and the street just south of the intersection, Becchina said. At least five other people were wounded in the shooting but lived.
Sunday’s killings bring the total homicide count in Kansas City this year to 99, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes killings by police. This time last year, the city had suffered 73 homicides, the second deadliest year in recorded history.