Shooting

Our church was the victim of a drive-by shooting that occurred sometime between 5:00 pm on Monday July 23 and 4:00 pm on Tuesday July 24. Five rounds, that appear to have come from a 9mm handgun, were fired through the glass doors in the entryway of our church. Four of the rounds shattered the glass in two of our four doors, and one round went through the stained glass between the doors. The rounds also did quite a bit of damage inside the church: taking out our message board, damaging the metal safety rail alongside the stairwell, damaging some trim and leaving several holes in the wall. One round went through the wall and also shattered the large mirror in the upstairs men’s restroom.

Fortunately, no one was at the church during the shooting and there were no bodily injuries as a result. Doors, mirrors, message boards, paneling and trim can all be replaced, but human lives cannot! We praise God that no one was physically hurt as a result of this incident.

The incident was reported to the Kansas City Police Department and the investigating officer managed to recover several of the rounds as evidence. The officer told the pastor that there was a similar incident at a sister church nearby recently. In that instance the pastor was at the church at the time and so that incident is being investigated as an armed assault. Because no one was present at our church at the time the shooting occurred, our incident will be investigated as a property damage incident. There is a possibility that the two incidents may be linked.

If anyone knows of anything regarding this incident we would like to ask them to contact the Kansas City Police Department – Shoal Creek Substation, Property Crimes Investigation Unit. Our neighborhood association is planning to encourage our neighbors to contact the police if they saw or heard anything regarding the shooting. We would like to see the shooters come to justice so that the safety of our neighborhood might be preserved. We thank the neighborhood association for their cooperation.