KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, police identified the 6-year-old boy who was murdered Tuesday night in the 7300 block of Indiana Avenue.
Karvel Stevens' death is leading to a renewed call to action for the Kansas City community to address a rising tide of violence and invest in access to mental health resources.
Police were responding to a call from a woman, who told dispatchers that the devil was trying to attack her around 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
Upon arrival, officers entered the residence when a woman inside, who could be heard singing, would not come to the door and after seeing what appeared to be blood and other evidence of a crime.
Inside the home, KCPD officers discovered the body of Stevens, who turned 6 years old in December.
“It’s difficult to imagine the grief for this boy’s family,” Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker said in a lengthy statement that vowed “to bring justice” for Stevens’ murder. “For the child’s classmates. His friends. Neighbors. The first responders who went to this crime scene.”
Tasha Haefs, who was identified as Stevens’ mother, was arrested at the scene.
Haefs was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Peters called on the wider Kansas City community to “heed the call” signaled by Stevens’ death — urging cooperation among “law enforcement, prosecutors, public health officials, social service providers” to combat the scourge of violence and better address mental health across the community.
“We’ve seen the horror that can occur when we don’t work together to help our community members avoid a future of violence,” Peters said in her statement. “Going forward, let’s keep a clear goal: Reduce our community’s violence and alert mental health professionals whenever we are aware of someone in need of intervention.”
The two deadliest years for homicides in KCMO have come in 2020 and 2021. There were a record 179 homicides in 2020 and 157 last year, which is the second-most in the city’s history, according to KCPD’s Daily Homicide Analysis.
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The previous record was 153 homicides in 1993, a record KCMO narrowly missed in 2019 when there were 151 homicides.
So far, there have been 18 homicides in 2022, which puts this year on a similar pace to each of the last three years.
Kansas City’s sky-rocketing homicide rate drew the attention of federal officials, which named a federal crackdown on violent offenders in July 2020 after LeGend Taliferro, another of the city’s child murder victims in recent years.
Operation LeGend was expanded to multiple other cities and netted charges against at least 125 suspects in violent crimes, Department of Justice officials announced after the three-month sweep wrapped up.
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, call the Missouri Crisis line at 1-888-279-8188, visit the Metropolitan Council of Community Mental Health Centers for local resources.
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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 KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
