I'd thought that Rodney Kemp was the city's first homicide of 2009, but KCPD actually logged two other cases earlier in the day, Christine Vendel reports.
Early in the day, police received a homicide ruling from the Jackson County Medical Examiner regarding the death of a baby last year.
Later Monday, a 16-year-old boy died at a hospital from injuries he suffered in an apparent accidental shooting last week.
The 4-month-old is named Jeremiah Candler, but police didn't say too much about his case, other than he went in the hospital back in November. Freddy H. Medina is the teenager -- he's the kid from yesterday who was accidentally shot after his friends got drunk and posed for pictures with a rifle. The shooting happened several days ago, but Freddy died on Monday.
How terrible that this is how cities are bringing in the new year.
Posted by: JT | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 10:51 AM
If the baby died last year, wouldn't that be a 2008 homocide?
Posted by: JUNGLE JIM | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Not necessarily. The official count reflects when the police are alerted about the homicide. For example, if you had a person go missing in July and their body only appeared in February, you'd say it was part of this year's count. (Even if evidence pointed to a time of death back in July.)
Posted by: Tony Rizzo | Wednesday, January 07, 2009 at 11:12 AM