KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man is charged with a Blair's Law violation and felon in possession of a firearm after he allegedly fired multiple gunshots into the air Thursday afternoon outside his apartment.
Prosecutors charged Garrett M. Richardson, 41, Friday in Clay County Court.
Police officers were sent at about 2:45 p.m. to an apartment complex at 115 N.W. Harlem Road in Kansas City, Missouri's Harlem neighborhood.
911 callers said about 15 to 20 gunshots had been fired outside a second-floor apartment, according to a court document.
Officers found Richardson standing on a second-floor walkway with a handgun in his right hand. He walked inside and outside his apartment several times before walking just out of the officer's sight line.
The officers heard multiple gunshots from where Richardson walked and he went back into his apartment.
Richardson refused police orders to come out of the apartment. Officers found out Richardson was a convicted felon and was prohibited from having firearms, according to the court document.
A standoff began and tactical officers were sent to the apartment complex.
Officers captured Richardson when he left his apartment and began beating on the door of another apartment.
“I commend the responding officers who protected our community by quickly responding to the scene, securing the defendant, and conducting a professional investigation,” Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson stated in a news release Friday.
Investigators searched Richardson's apartment after his arrest and found a High Point 9mm handgun, along with live and spent ammunition.
Dozens of shell casings were found outside the apartment that matched the caliber of the ammunition found in Richardson's apartment.
A Blair's Law violation occurs when a person commits the offense of unlawful discharge of a firearm or if that person recklessly shoots a firearm within or into the limits of any municipality in Missouri.
The law is named forBlair Shanahan Lane, an 11-year-old girl killed by celebratory gunfire on July 4, 2011, in KCMO.
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