Hundreds of shell casings found at Kansas City’s Swope Park after Sunday shootout

Anna Spoerre
·3 min read

Officials on Monday said a shootout Sunday that injured one at Swope Park left hundreds of empty shell casings.

Mayor Quinton Lucas during a news conference Monday afternoon said that “fights” broke out Sunday in Swope Park. He added that some of those involved may have relocated to different areas. He did not elaborate further.

The victim of the Swope Park shooting, a woman, told police that she was at Swope Park “hanging out along with hundreds of other people,” when she heard one gunshot ring out from up the street, Capt. Dave Jackson, a spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email.

After hearing the first shot, the victim told police she then saw multiple people pull out weapons and start shooting, Jackson said.

The woman was shot in the right arm, Jackson said. She has since been discharged from the hospital, where she was taken with injuries that were not life-threatening.

“A crime scene was located inside the park with hundreds of spent shell casings of all different calibers,” Jackson said.

The Swope Park shootout preceded a shooting near Kansas City’s 18th & Vine district that left a man dead and three others injured later that evening. Lucas said a “gun battle” was also an element of that shooting, which occurred just after 10 p.m.

The mayor later identified the man killed as Gary Taylor, a personal trainer who left behind “a lot of caring” friends and family. Taylor was recently named a semi-finalist for best male personal trainer of the year by the Kansas City People’s Choice Awards.

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“People tend to kind of know what’s happening,” Lucas said, asking for community members to come forward if they have information on these crimes. “There’s too many of these shootings, particularly in these big, public areas.”

Fifty-one people have been shot in the city this month alone, according to numbers provided by the police department and data tracked by The Star. Nine of the victims were killed.

This data points to an increase in gun violence, with the number of shootings so far in April surpassing those of previous months this year and April of 2020.

As of Sunday in Kansas City, 144 people have been shot and survived in 2021. The city has recorded 49 homicides this year.

Police are asking anyone with information on any of the killing to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information in the killing.

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Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.

To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.

The Star’s Katie Moore contributed.

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