East Kansas City bar shut down by Jackson County Prosecutor's Office

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - A Kansas City bar made infamous by a 1970 slaying and a recent spate of violence has been shut down.

The announcement came Friday from the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced that her office has taken several legal actions to shut the Green Duck Tavern and Green Duck Lounge near East 26th Street and Prospect Avenue for as long as a year.

“These actions are absolutely necessary to protect the hard-working citizens in this community who for too many years have been plagued by the drugs and violence associated with the Green Duck,” Baker said at a news conference Friday.

Police responded last week to complaints about illegal drug activity in and around the tavern. Drug transactions took place inside the Green Duck and a nearby parking lot. Police also saw drug dealers going in and out of the business to conduct deals.

Since May 2011, the Kansas City Police Department has received 19 calls for violent crime, including a homicide, as well as 21 suspicious drug activity complaints.

The homicide happened on Sept. 28.

Witnesses told police a woman shot at two men standing outside the bar and a third man in the bar's doorway.

The violence brought Mayor Sly James to the crime scene.

James said the people who live in the neighborhoods around the bar needed jobs to spur development and improve living conditions.
More than 40 years ago, the tavern was the site of the murder of civil rights leader Leon Jordan.

The Kansas City Star reported Jordan was killed by shotgun fire outside the tavern. Jordan owned the Green Duck Lounge at the time of his murder.

His murder case stayed cold for 40 years.

The Kansas City Police Department's Cold Case Squad re-opened the case after prodding from civil rights advocate Alvin Sykes and a July 11, 2010 story in The Star.