Shooting at Ward Parkway: How the media unbalances crime
April 30, 2007
The wife and I came home this evening from our weekend with my parents in good old St. Louis. After getting settled in, unpacking and checking email, we find that Juri’s brother from Japan sent a concerned note about a Kansas City shooting. Immediately, I’m surprised that he would know about something like that. Shootings are common here. Shooting homicides are also too common. Probably 50 a year in the KC metro area. I’ll have to fact check that statistic though, it fluctuates. Why does he hear about this one though? Apparently, the echoes of another random act of violence in middle America was heard in Japan and China and likely other places. Thanks to the media, everyone in the world can be made to believe that random shootings are the world’s greatest threat.
Juri and I frequent this mall. We probably walk the same path as the shooter did once every two weeks. Starbucks, Target, and several shops in between. We might have been there today if it wasn’t for the trip to see my parents. But I’m not dwelling on that. I’ll be back at that mall in a matter of days. I’ll see Spiderman 3 or stock up on some cotton swabs. I don’t let my perception get too skewed by things like these. Why? Because reality is, there is more to be concerned about in my neighborhood in regards to smaller crime than there is with something random like this. When I went on a ride with the Kansas City Metro Patrol last year, the officers told me that they wouldn’t want to take their family to the plaza because it’s a dangerous place. Crime happens all the time there, in the garages around corners. They said “You know why you don’t hear about it right? Because the city wants you to keep shopping there, so the stories get buried or killed.”
That’s comforting!
Actually, our mall has done an excellent job over the past 24 months. We’ve lost our bookstore there, but we’ve gained several cosmetic upgrades, Old Navy, a big shoe store, several parking lot beatifications and the mall-goers have always been pretty pleasant. Security is also quick on the job there. While shopping on afternoon, I watched a man, having some sort of mental episode, shove a clerk at a kiosk onto the floor. It took about twenty seconds for two guards to show up and check on the guy and the clerk.
*Update*
I met with some public officials in Kurashiki, Japan this past week. We are preparing for a large exchange of close to 500 Japanese later in the summer. We talked about security and ensuring safety of the younger folks going on the trip. They immediately brought up the only scary Kansas City story they had heard about, the Ward Parkway shooting. They wanted to know how far the shopping mall was from the dormitories they are staying in. I assured them that they were safe as long as they didn’t watch the news.
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April 30th, 2007 at 12:59 am
The official KCPD statement: Officers were called Sunday, April 29th, at about 149 pm to the 3700 block of East 93rd street to check the welfare of an elderly woman. When the officers arrived, they discovered a dead woman inside the home. Officers were also told the woman’s car was missing. The officers put out a description of the woman’s car.
At about 311 pm, an officer on patrol saw the vehicle that was reported missing from the woman’s home. The officer stopped the car at 1311 Bannister road. When he stopped the car, the driver began shooting at the officer. The officer returned fire but was struck in the arm by one of the gunman’s shots. The officer put out a description of the vehicle to officers. It is unknown if any of the officer’s shots struck the man. He was transported to an area hospital for treatment. He was treated and released. The officer is 44 years old and has been with the department since January 1992.
At about 327 pm, we received a call regarding an outside disturbance with shots fired at the Ward Parkway mall, 8600 Ward Parkway. While on the way to the call, the officers received information that a man was inside the mall with a long gun. Officers from Kansas City and Leawood, along with security from the mall, confronted the man inside the common area of the mall. During this confrontation, the man was shot to death by the officers. It is believed the dead man is the one who shot the officer on Bannister road. His vehicle was found in the parking lot. Additionally, two people were found shot to death on each side of the vehicle the man was driving.