4 hurt in Westport shooting

Happened near 39th and Broadway about 3 a.m. Here's what gets me -- and it happens more often than it should in cases like this -- hundreds of people were nearby when the shooting happened. Police say practically nobody stayed to give them any info.

KCPD's official release: At about 3 am on Sunday morning, officers were at 39th and Broadway directing traffic out of the area from the weekend Westport crowd when they heard 12 to 13 gun shots.  One of the officers looked up and saw a man in his 20's falling near the Walgreen parking lot.

Another man in his 20's was walking toward the officer saying he had been shot.  When officer checked on the man who had fallen, they discovered he had been shot in the head.  Both men were transported to an area hospital for treatment of their injuries.  The one who fell had injuries that are considered life threatening and the other man had non-life threatening injures. 

While officers were clearing the area they found a car a few blocks from the scene with several bullet holes in the car and blood on the interior (Dodge Charger).  No victims were found inside the vehicle, however, 2 other males showed up at an area hospital claiming they had been shot.  The men believe their shooting took place near 39th and Broadway as well but we are unsure at this time if they are connected to the Dodge. Despite several hundred people being at the scene of the shooting, very few people stayed to provide detectives details of what happened. Investigators need anyone with information to call the TIPS hotline at 816.474.8477.

Comments

Few stayed?! Degenerates in this city all deserve to be victims of violent crime if this is how they act. Sick.

Besides, Westport is just a snake pit of filth anyway.

[happy rock]

",,several hundred people were around 39th and Broadway following the shooting, few stayed to provide detectives with details of what happened"

Yea, stick around and talk to the cops, in Westport, at 3am and take a chance of getting a DUI.

[Nick]

"Yea, stick around and talk to the cops, in Westport, at 3am and take a chance of getting a DUI." Happy Rock

I thought the very same thing. Kind of amazing really. You have a PD that has embraced a predatory and adversarial relationship with the public, then have the audacity to blame their victims when they refuse to walk into the trap.

Solution: Don't drive drunk.

[Jay]

I live about 2 blocks from 39th and Bway. The shots woke me up at 3:14 a.m. There were a lot more rounds fired than 12-13. It was more like 25 and from at least 2 different guns. The rounds were fired so quickly it sounded more like a pack of fireworks going off. I find it hard to believe there were "hundreds" of people at that location at anytime day or night. Even when the buses are loading and unloading there at rush hour, I would think 20 people would be unusually high. Unfortunately, I hear these kinds of gun shots at least a couple of times per year. The wife is not real impressed. My neighborhood is nice, but Broadway sucks. I wish all the police officers they can muster for the checklanes would just patrol Broadway a little more. It would make a big difference.

I'm not in Westport, but I live in the supposedly up and coming downtown Quality Hill area. No gun shots, but lots of crime. Just this week, in my parking garage, there have been numerous smash and grab car break-ins.

The vagrants roam the area just east of broadway, panhandling like mad. The park by Quality Hill Towers has lots of riff raff in it all night long.

We need more beat cops. Not people roaming around busting chops in cars. But actual cops that walk the streets and get to know people, see what's going on. Like in days past. Or bike cops. Quality of life in downtown and midtown is getting crappy.

[Westport Partier]

I was on Westport at the time of the shooting. What was not reported is that the "hundreds" of people were mostly in cars being diverted to 39th street and were not actually witnesses to the shooting which occurred north of 39th street on Broadway (Westport is south). The police had already blocked Broadway so most of the people would NOT have witnessed the shooting. And I seriously doubt those who were closest to the gunfire was looking around to see who was shooting but instead was ducking for cover.

[Just another bartender]

Yep, the policing in midtown is truly awful.
1. I work at a bar at 38th and Broadway. We had an episode last year (on a Saturday night) that required me to call the police and after they showed up 40 minutes later were surprised to find our bar. "How long have you been open here?" the cop asked. 38 years, guy. Doesn't make me feel real safe when the cops don't even know you're there.
2. I've been spending my nights this last couple of weeks standing out on the sidewalk staring down young punks and thugs looking to sell drugs on the SE corner of 37th and Broadway and across the street on the sidewalk in front of the Shell station. Cops drive by all of the time. None ever stop.
3. I drive home eastbound on 37th street between Broadway and Main. What are you looking for? Crack. Got it? Little kids riding bicycles at 3:00am selling crack? Got it. Hookers? Yep. Loitering in front of businesses. Oh yeah. Police? Well... they're busy harassing people in Westport.
4. I love the new panhandling ordinance that the city and the owners of Westport are trying to pass. That will push all Westport panhandling north of 39th street and into our front door. We don't have any faith that there will be any cops to help.
5. Our back parking lot has in the past been a good place to smoke crack because the owners of the buildings around don't fix broken light fixtures. We don't even bother to call the police anymore, they don't even bother to show up.
6. We had the neighborhood watch representative from the KCPD come give a presentation to the neighborhood I live in, about 5-6 blocks away. See, prostitution and property crimes are getting pretty bad around here. The cop said that when we call in drug dealing and prostitution in front of our house, to not be surprised if it takes awhile (60-90 minutes) to get around to responding, they're busy with higher priority crime calls (like DUI checkpoints in Westport). The synopsis of the meeting was that in the eyes of the KCPD, we were on our own.
7. And yet at least one morning a week the cops have enough manpower to dedicate 3-4 cops and squad cars to busting southbound speeders topping the hill at 40th and Main.
8. And they have plenty of money to pay for that damned chopper that for some reason likes to hover at low altitude over our neighborhood at all hours of the night.
9. All of this and I'm white and live and work in white neighborhoods. I can't even begin to imagine how bad it must be east of Troost.

Anyone who doesn't think that crime and the KCPD are the biggest problems in this city haven't spent much time in midtown...

[Good police work, KCPD]

I wasn't at the scene at the time, but my buddy was. Apparently for some time before the shooting at around 3:14am, there was quite a bit of "cruising", "aggressive driving", and the like up and down Broadway between 39th Street and Chubby's (36-37th street). He watched it for maybe 10-15 minutes, people riding on trunk lids and hoods, u-turns in the middle of the street, etc. etc.
Where were the cops then?

What the f**k kind of inspector Cleuseau does it take to realize that the longer you let the little crap slide, the more crap is going to go down.

Swiping MO license stickers grows into breaking into cars, grows into mugging pedestrians and dealing dope, grows into robbing businesses and stabbing people, etc...

When cops won't respond to complaints of cruising and aggressive driving then who's surprised there was a shooting 30 minutes later?

[Kelli]

You know, we read about these stories every week, and you don't really think it could ever happen to you or someone you know. The man who was shot at the Walgreen's was my nephew. He was 21 years old - a wonderful, wonderful man. He was in the area trying to find a friend that was out partying. He walked out of the Walgreen's and into the shooting. He was yelling to people to get on the ground - he pushed his friend down so he wouldn't get shot, and he ended up taking a bullet to the back of the head. He was trying to take care of other people, and some spineless coward shot him in the head. If anyone knows anything about this, or knows anything that we can do to try and find out who did this, please post and let us know.

[K]

The 21 year old who was shot in the head had been a friend of mine. The fact that he and a few others were out that late looking for a friend who had wandered off, drunk, by himself should say a lot about their character. He wasn't starting a fight, sellign drugs, or in trouble. He was a completely innocent man looking for his friend. The media needs to do something to expose the violence that goes on in Westport that the police are "oblivious" to. Or that the police ignore.