KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The FBI Kansas City Division is partaking in a national campaign to bring awareness to hate crimes and encourage people to report them.
Campaign initiatives will be advertised on public buses throughout the city from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, and will move to surrounding areas in Missouri and Kansas on Oct. 15, per an FBI press release.
The local FBI division hopes the campaign will bring awareness to the 2004 death of Alonzo Brooks, which was ruled a homicide in 2021. The case went cold with no leads, and in 2019 it was reopened to determine if his murder was racially motivated.
Brooks, who was 23 at the time, was one of three Black men at a 100-person party in LaCygne, Kansas, when his friends left before him and ended up with no ride home.
Coinciding with the hate crime awareness, the FBI Kansas City is also launching a billboard campaign seeking information pertaining to Brooks' murder. The FBI is offering up to $100,000 reward for any tips that lead to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of those involved with Brooks' murder, per press release from the FBI.
The FBI's civil rights program prioritizes investigating hate crimes because it often impacts entire communities, according to a press release from the FBI. The FBI defines hate crimes as "a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."
The FBI asks that anyone with any information or details — no matter how small — regarding the house party Brooks' attended on April 3, 2004, reach out to the FBI.
"The smallest detail, which may seem insignificant to you, could be the key to solving this homicide," the FBI said in a press release.
Those with any tips can contact the FBI at (816)-512-8200 or online at tips.fbi.gov.
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For jurisdictions that utilize the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline, anonymous tips can be made by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Tips leading to an arrest made through the Tips Hotline may be eligible for up to a $25,000 reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
