KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After a 4-year-old boy was shot to death as he slept in his bed Monday morning, community members and public officials alike are pleading for change in Kansas City, Missouri.
“I don’t see nothing this 4-year-old baby did to somebody that would make someone shoot this baby in the face and kill it,” Pat Clarke, community activist and executive director of the Oak Park Economic Resource and Development Center, said.
According to KCPD, LeGend Taliferro, 4, was asleep in bed when someone targeting the unit where he lived in the the Citadel Apartments in the 1600 block of Bushman Road opened fire, striking the preschooler in the head.
“Know that this is something that will never be acceptable to us,” KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said. “We need to talk to folks in our community and make sure to tell them, put the guns down."
KCPD is investigating the city's 92nd homicide of the year, but said they do not currently have a motive for the tragedy.
Preliminary investigation determined this shooting was not random, and the apartment was targeted. There is a $25,000 CASH REWARD for information on Legend's killer. You can stay anonymous by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477).
— kcpolice (@kcpolice) June 29, 2020
“There’s too many kids that have been killed,” KCPD Chief of Police Rick Smith said during an afternoon press conference.
LeGend's shooting death keeps KCMO on a record pace for homicides in 2020. The most homicides recorded in a single year in the city is 153 in 1993, but KCMO is on pace for more than 180 this year.
Kansas City has come close in recent years to breaking the dubious record with 151 homicides in 2017 and 150 in 2019, according to KCPD's Daily Homicide Analysis.
“We can’t do this alone," Smith said. "We need help on this matter. We need the city, we need the community, we need everyone involved in this."
Clarke echoed KCPD's calls for unity and peace.
“If we don’t do this together...." he said, "it won't get done."
