Early Sunday morning, a shooting in a parking lot in Kansas City, Missouri, resulted in the deaths of at least three people and left five others injured. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office reported that the incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. southeast of downtown Kansas City.
Upon receiving a report of gunfire, officers arrived at the scene to find three victims, two men, and a woman, dead in the parking lot and on a street just south of the intersection of 57th Street and Prospect Avenue.
According to Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte, preliminary evidence suggests that a large gathering of people was present in the parking lot when the shooting broke out. Five other people were taken to hospitals by ambulance or private vehicles, all suffering from what are believed to be non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Detectives and crime scene investigators are currently interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence at the crime scene.
No arrests have been made, and the motive behind the shooting is still under investigation. A $25,000 reward has been offered to the public for relevant information leading to an arrest.
The triple homicide came amid a 28% increase in homicides in Kansas City this year, according to Kansas City Police Department crime statistics.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucus expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and questioned why a crowd was gathered in a parking lot at the time of the shooting. In total, 13 people were shot in Kansas City overnight, including a person slain at a short-term vacation rental.