Prior to the holiday weekend, Kansas City, Missouri police reported 69 homicides. Three people were killed just Saturday night, taking the homicide toll over 70.
At this time in 2015, there had been 37 homicides, last year there were 51. In all of 2016, there were 130 homicides. At this pace, 2017 is on track to exceed that.
Most recent data from KCMO police shows that most of the victims and suspects in this year’s homicides have been men, 54 victims and 40 suspects. Most of the victims and suspects are between the ages of 17 and 34.
Red markers indicate a homicide, blue markers indicate a non-fatal violent crime and yellow indicates fatal traffic crashes.
We know that two more men were killed over the weekend. Police were called to 28th Terrace and Myrtle around 10 p.m. Saturday. The two men were found lying in the street with apparent gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Community activist Pat Clarke was there. He said something has to change, “Fourth of July, most people are out celebrating. Other people decide to take lives.”
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Earlier that evening police were called to another address in the 1600 block of 80th Street on a disturbance call. When they arrived they found a person dead inside a vehicle.
The homicide happened just around the corner from the home of Paige Otto.
The mother of five said she’s lived in the neighborhood about a year.
In that short time, Otto said there has been a lot of violence, “Yea, it’s out of control.”
Otto said she and her husband didn’t know what happened at first because of the holiday weekend, "Usually if we hear something we get up and look but it was so much firecrackers going on you couldn't distinguish what was what."
RELATED: 2017 homicide tracker
Otto learned what happened when her mother called, "I got a phone call from my mother. She asked me if I was okay. She said 'your sister just called me and said someone got killed... on your street.’ They thought it was me.”
Community members say the killing needs to stop, “We cannot allow this to go on. Three in one night. We cannot have this start up again,” said Rosalind Temple of Mother’s in Charge.
Otto agrees, she says if something doesn’t change soon, she no longer wants to call Kansas City home, “That’s all there is is violence, everywhere you go.”
Of the homicides this year, more than 50 people were killed with a firearm.
