KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the three weeks since the shooting death of 22-month-old Tyron Payton, police said they've only received three tips in the hunt for the boy's killer.
"I want them to find them," Juhna Payton, Tyron's mother, told 41 Action News on Monday. "Find who did this to us because we didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves it. No mother, no child deserves it."
The family shared cell phone video of Tyron playing with his puppy five days before a gunman emptied a clip on the car the boy and his parents were in as it was parked in front of their home on East 33rd Street.
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Juhna said her baby was hit seven times.
"I made the conscious effort of looking at him [the gunman] at that split second of really just saying ''why'?" she said.
Juhna was struck shielding Tyron and her husband, who slammed the gas pedal to get them away from the hail of gunfire. They ended up at a nearby fire station.
"Then when they pulled him out, I didn’t hear nothing," Juhna said, "and my baby – he didn’t cry."
Tyron would have turned two next month.
Juhna said she doesn't know why anyone would do something so heinous.
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"It could be that you’re in a nice car or a nice rental car, all because they think you somebody else or just simply because you caught up in between something that you never knew you was in between," she said.
The loss of Tyron has brought his parents so much pain and grief that the families of the more than 140 homicide victims so far this year have felt.
"Understand that we have to stop killing our babies," Juhna said. "And we have to stop shooting each other and Black lives matter; it’s got to matter model to Black people. It has to matter to Black people. It starts right here with us, that if we can't love each other how can we expect the world to love us?" Juhna said.
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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.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the 41 Action News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the 41 Action News Mug Shot Policy.
