A woman died at a hospital after she was struck by gunfire early Wednesday in a pre-rush hour shooting on westbound Interstate 670 in downtown Kansas City, a police spokeswoman said.
Police initially received a 911 call shortly before 5:40 a.m. about an injury crash at Interstate 670 and Broadway in the south part of the downtown loop in Kansas City, said Officer Donna Drake with the Kansas City Police Department.
As officers were on their way to the wreck, a second 911 call came in moments later saying there had been a shooting at the same location, Drake said.
Once there, officers found a woman inside a car suffering from gunshot wounds. Emergency medical workers took the victim to a hospital where she died a short time later, Drake said. Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators responded to the area to collect evidence and to talk to any witnesses.
While they investigated the city’s latest homicide, police shut down the westbound lanes of I-670, which snarled traffic headed into and through downtown and caused backups that stretched for miles. The highway reopened about three hours later.
By midday Wednesday, Drake said there were no new updates available for release on the shooting, including whether it stemmed from a road rage incident. If the killing is related to road rage, it would be the second such homicide in the Kansas City area in less than a week.
A 50-year-old Northmoor man allegedly shot and killed Cody J. Steffen, 32, following a wreck outside a store at the Vivion West Mall in Northmoor, a small town in Kansas City’s Northland.
Phillip J. Frazier has been charged with second degree murder and armed criminal action. Witnesses heard Steffen ask for Frazier’s insurance information. Then Frazier allegedly pulled a gun from behind his back and shot Steffen from a few inches away.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said in a statement over the weekend that similar incidents where a person is killed due to a “minor fender bender” are occurring “far too frequently these days.”
And earlier this year, 59-year-old Michael Bohnsack of Leavenworth was killed in a possible road rage incident on Interstate 435 at the Kansas 10 interchange in Lenexa.
Initially, it was thought that Bohnsack was killed in a crash that occurred about 5:45 a.m. on Jan. 12 because he was found dead inside a white Jeep Grand Cherokee that had veered off the highway and crashed into a light pole.
It was later determined that Bohnsack had been shot. His death was classified as as homicide. Police sought information anyone who might have seen any possible road rage behaviors involving the Jeep and another vehicle about the time of the crash.
The I-670 killing on Wednesday is the 82nd homicide in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked, which includes fatal police shootings. There were 69 killings by this time last year, which ended as the second-deadliest year on record with 171 killings.
In 2020, 182 lives were lost, the most homicides ever recorded. The next year was the third-deadliest year, with 157 killings in 2021.
Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information provided to TIPS which leads to an arrest in the case.
Kansas City police are working with Partners for Peace in all of the city’s homicide investigations to monitor risks for retaliation and provide social services to those affected.