KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City police have identified the utility worker who was killed in a shooting Tuesday as Johnathon L. Porter, 23.
Officers were dispatched just after 8:30 a.m. to a reported shooting at a construction site near 9th Street and Brooklyn Avenue.
When they arrived, they found a worker, later identified as Porter, who had been shot.
He was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died.
Police later released a photo of a person of interest in the shooting. He's believed to be a black man between the ages of 25 and 30. He was wearing a dark-colored hoodie and gray pants. He was last seen walking northeast from 9th and Brooklyn, the scene of the shooting.
A roofer working just down the street when the shooting happened was too traumatized to talk on camera but told 41 Action News he applied pressure on Porter's wound until paramedics arrived.
"We just kept trying to talk to him and keep him with us until help could arrive. This was such a senseless murder. I just want his family, friends, and co-workers to know they are all in my thoughts and prayers and that we did everything we could to try to save him," the man, who did not want to be identified, said.
According to city permit records, Spire was working to repair a gas main in the area.
In a statement, Spire said the employee who was killed was working for a subcontractor, InfraSource, which Spire had hired to complete the work. Spire pulled its crews, and contracted crews, off job sites throughout the Kansas City area after the shooting.
— Spire (@spire_energy) April 24, 2018
InfraSource sent a statement to 41 Action News saying they were "deeply saddened" after the shooting.
"We are actively cooperating with local law enforcement to determine the cause of this tragic incident. We ask that you hold our employee, his family and friends, and our InfraSource family in your thoughts and prayers," InfraSource said in the statement.
According to a family friend, Porter had only been working with InfraSource for a few days. The young man from Appleton City was expecting a child with his girlfriend.
If you have information that can help police solve the case, you're encouraged to call the Tips Hotline at 816-474-8477.
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