Kansas City police target violent criminals in 3-day sweep of troubled neighborhoods

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - About 150 officers from several different local and federal agencies will be canvassing the streets of Kansas City Friday in hopes of finding information on five unsolved murders from the past year.

It’s the final day of a three-day operation focusing on five areas of Kansas City and a few addresses in Independence.

The areas were chosen because while only accounting for 3 percent of Kansas City’s land area, they have been responsible for 27 percent of its homicides, 41 percent of its drive-by shootings and 30 percent of its aggravated assaults from January to June 2010.

The first phase of the initiative took place on Wednesday and Thursday. Officers served search warrants and conducted knock-and-talks within the target areas.

The second phase will happen Friday, in which the officers will go door-to-door in attempt to collect more information about the following cold case homicides:

• Ricky Jones: 23-year-old Ricky Jones was shot at 31st and Elmwood at about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 1, 2009. He and a group of friends had been hanging out by an old school there when someone opened fire on the group.
• Maurice West: 20-year-old Maurice West was shot at about 3:58 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2009. He had been walking down a sidewalk at 116th and Holiday Drive when he became involved in a verbal argument with two black males across the street. One of them then shot and killed West, and both fled on foot.
• Jamil Ragland: 21-year-old Jamil D. Ragland was shot multiple times at about 8:18 p.m. March 26, 2010, in the parking lot of Friendship Village apartments at 5637 Norton. Three vehicles were seen leaving the scene of the shooting.
• Helen Ragan: 37-year-old Helen Ragan was inside her townhome in the 11800 block of Holiday Drive at about 9:52 p.m. April 26, 2010, when someone shot into the residence multiple times. Ragan was shot and killed in a bedroom.
• Bernard Jackson: 23-year-old Bernard Jackson was found shot to death in his home in the 8200 block of E. 108th St. after an apparent robbery at about 12:26 a.m. April 30, 2010. The suspect is described as a tall, slender light-skinned black male 21 to 24 years old.