KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Shots were fired outside the church where family and friends were paying their final respects Saturday afternoon at the funeral of a 15-year-old shooting victim.
Anjanique B. Wright was murdered Feb. 12 outside Central Academy of Excellence, where she was attending a girls’ basketball game.
After a disturbance inside the school, security kicked out three people involved in the incident.
The two people who were arrested Feb. 13 and charged Feb. 14 with second-degree murder — Jamya Norfleet, 21, and Taylor McMillon, 18 — were escorted outside first and waited to ambush Wright, according to a KCPD investigation.
Wright was shot a few steps from the door after also being escorted from the building.
Her family, including a twin sister who was with Wright at the time of the shooting, expressed anger and frustration that security at the game heed warnings that the girls waiting outside may be armed.
Wright’s visitation and funeral took place Saturday at Graceway.
“A church pastor said during an afternoon funeral service a car driving by shot into the air,” KCPD said in a statement emailed to media outlets.
No one was injured and it not believed anyone was targeted.
"I really don’t know what to say," said David Downs, a father who came to pick up his two daughters from the funeral. "It is a horrible thing to happen. That is real terrible, they are trying to bury someone and this is going on."
KCPD confirmed that multiple subjects of interest were taken into custody a few miles away in connection with the shots fired.
Late Saturday night, police confirmed that the suspect vehicle drove east along 55th Street outside the church and a passenger fired a weapon out of the window. During the ensuing vehicle pursuit, the suspect vehicle crashed near Blue Parkway and Cleveland Ave., where three subjects were taken into custody and three firearms were recovered.
There were no injuries in the crash, KCPD said in a release.
Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell urged the community to search for solutions to gun violence in the wake of Wright’s shooting.
KCPS has conflict-resolution curriculum and other programs in place, but stressed that schools alone aren’t equipped to solve the issue.
Graceway canceled a “scheduled middle school lock-in and other activities due to safety concerns” after “a disruption outside of the building that required a police presence,” according to a post on Facebook.
Officers with the Raytown Police Department also responded to the initial incident.
