UPDATE, Dec. 2 | The Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office said that as of Thursday afternoon, the woman and child injured both remained in critical condition at the hospital.
ORIGINAL STORY, Dec. 1 | A suspect in a Wednesday morning shooting at a Kansas City, Kansas, park was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after barricading himself from officers.
Two children were also found with gunshot wounds in the barricaded home. A 7-year-old girl died, while a 3-year-old boy was transported to an area hospital, according to a release.
The suspect barricaded himself from officers in a home at North 55th Street and Everett Avenue, according to a release.
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department officers and Wyandotte County Sheriff's deputies were at the scene of the barricade.
The sheriff's office responded to a shooting at Welborn Park at around 7 a.m., where a female victim was located with apparent gunshot wounds.
The victim was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
A KCKPD spokesperson said that the female victim was the suspect's girlfriend.
Steven Bugg, who identified as the suspect’s step-father, said his step-son was in his late 30s.
According to Reginald Allen, who identified himself as the suspect’s best friend, the suspect and his girlfriend met in Chicago and moved to Kansas City, Kansas, a couple of years ago. They lived together with their two kids, three and seven.
Allen said the suspect called him around 8:30 a.m. saying he was thinking about taking his life to avoid jail time. Allen did not take the suspect’s words too seriously in the moment and did not feel the need to notify the police. He said it was not like his friend to commit these kinds of crimes.
Allen said his friend never provided any explanation as to why he wanted to hurt his girlfriend during that call. The two friends hung up after planning to call again around 9:30 a.m., and never spoke again.
Neighbors said shootings are common in the area, but they were shocked to hear there were children involved.
“Shootings happen all the time but not some man killing a child and then killing a woman. No, no that's not normal,” Aneisha Lowe said. “It’s a lot of children over here. It's just a sad situation. My heart goes out to the families.”
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This is a developing story.
