KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One person was arrested Thursday afternoon after a child was shot in Independence, police said.
Police responded shortly before 2:30 p.m. to a shooting in the 2200 block of South Cedar Avenue. Independence police spokesman Officer John Syme said a juvenile was shot "during some type of altercation."
The child was transported to an area hospital and was in stable condition, Syme said.
C.J. Thomas, who lives two doors down from where the shooting occurred, described the moments before he heard shots fired to 41 Action News.
“It started out with a lot of commotion and car doors slamming,” he said. “Then, shots were fired.”
After hearing the disturbance, Thomas raced to protect his 2-year-old daughter and bring her to safety.
“I was in the kitchen and I ran up front and snatched her in the back and I shot right out,” he said. “By the time I got out, the entire neighborhood was outside.”
Police later arrested a suspect more than 20 miles away at a restaurant near Zona Rosa.
For Thomas, the violence on Thursday raised all sorts of concerns.
“It would’ve really been scary if it had been an hour later, when the school buses pull up," he said. "There’s 20 to 30 kids that walk this area all the time. It’s just kind of real that this happened here. You hear about this happening everywhere else, but it happened right here on the block two houses down.”
Police had not released information on the suspect or the age of the child asof Thursday night.
