A string of unprovoked shootings across a 5-mile corridor of Kansas City, Missouri, left one person dead and four wounded Tuesday evening, including an Uber driver transporting American soccer fans who had come to watch Argentina’s World Cup group-stage match against Algeria. Local law enforcement confirmed that the 22-year-old male prime suspect, who is considered armed and extremely dangerous, remained at large as of Thursday.
According to Kansas City Police Captain Jacob Becchina, the five separate shooting incidents unfolded between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Three of the attacks took place on Interstates 70 and 670 that run through downtown Kansas City, while the remaining two occurred further east along Truman Road, a major arterial route cutting through the city. All incidents occurred at least 4 miles away from Arrowhead Stadium, the venue where Argentina defeated Algeria that same evening.
Two fans riding in the targeted Uber vehicle told Argentine news outlet La Nación that a second vehicle pulled alongside their car before the gunman fired two shots, striking the driver in the lower leg. The pair said they initially mistook the sound of gunfire for a bursting tire, only realizing what had happened when they saw the driver bleeding from his wound. The fans were unharmed in the attack and were later escorted to Arrowhead Stadium by police after giving official statements at a local precinct. Captain Becchina confirmed the driver’s injuries are not life-threatening.
Authorities say the Uber attack and two of the other interstate shootings targeted vehicles traveling eastbound, including one car that had entered Missouri from neighboring Kansas. Of the four people injured across all five incidents – three adults and one teenage minor – all were transported to local hospitals for treatment. Only one adult is being treated for life-threatening injuries, Becchina noted.
Roughly half an hour after the first shooting was reported, first responders were called to the scene of a vehicle crash on Truman Road, where a car had collided with a utility pole. When the driver was brought to the hospital for treatment, medical staff discovered he had suffered a gunshot wound. He later succumbed to his injury, becoming the sole fatality in the string of attacks.
“All victims stated that they were traveling along the highway or city roadway when one or more rounds were fired into their vehicles,” Becchina explained in an official emailed statement. Investigative work by detectives has led them to conclude all the non-fatal shootings were carried out in quick succession, moving from west to east across the city, and are linked to a single suspect.
By late Tuesday, law enforcement had tracked the suspect to a residential property in Independence, a Kansas City suburb located roughly 2 miles east of where the fatal crash and shooting occurred. Officers established a perimeter around the home and staged a standoff, but when tactical teams entered the property around 8 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect was nowhere to be found.
Nancy Chartrand, a spokesperson for the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, added that the suspect already has an active warrant out for his arrest connected to an illegal firearms discharge incident that took place on June 11 across the state line.