A metro family is remembering the life of a father who was shot and killed at an apartment complex Thursday in Overland Park.
Anthony Shuster’s family chose a shelter house at Lake Wyandotte as the location for a vigil Monday evening because it’s where they would come to enjoy themselves while Shuster was growing up.
The young man’s life was cut short by a gunman’s bullet.
“The closer we got, the more choppers I had seen and I knew it couldn’t be good,” Toni Maltbia, Shuster’s mother, said.
Her gut instinct turned out to be a true. Police said Shuster was one of Michael Smith’s victims.
“The lady who did get grazed she said she didn’t hear any arguing, no fighting. The guy went in there and a few seconds later that’s when she hears gunshots,” Falysha Roa, Shuster’s cousin, said.
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Shuster lived at the Lodge Apartments near 107th Street and Metcalf with his fiancée, Kayla, and their young daughter. Shuster's family said the 28-year-old had two other children who he adored dearly.
“No matter what his past says or whatever anybody has to say about him now, he was really turning his life around and it’s so sad that this happened before he had an opportunity to do that and to make things better for his kids and his family,” Maltbia said.
Maltbia told 41 Action News her son knew the alleged killer. She said Smith was Shuster’s barber.
She doesn’t know what motivated him to show up on Thursday.
“You know at least give me a reason why you went in there and blatantly murdered my son with his daughter in his arms and you shot him in the back? I just don’t get it,” Maltbia said.
As the legal process is underway for justice, Shuster’s family wants the community to remember his qualities.
“Everything with him was a life lesson you know, it’s the same thing [Maltbia] said, you get turned around and he’ll help figure it out and there’s a lesson in that and you may not see it, but he will and teach you step by step how to get it back to the right track,” Roa said.
The family is working to make funeral arrangements for the father of three. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help with funeral expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/ggmzd-funeral-for-anthony-shuster
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
