KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A family is heartbroken after their loved one died in an armed street robbery Monday in the Southmoreland neighborhood.
Police said Zachary Pearce, 24, and a friend were walking home from Westport around midnight.
They were a few feet away from Pearce's apartment when a maroon SUV pulled up to them at 40th and Walnut.
Jacob Knerr, who was heading home from work, was close behind in his car.
"I came up behind them, getting ready to swerve around and I just hear a gunshot, so I slam on my brakes, kind of ducked down. I didn't know what was going on," Knerr told 41 Action News.
Police say Zachary Pearce was killed in an armed robbery near 40th and Walnut.
Police said a man emerged from the SUV demanding that Pearce and his friend hand over their money and phones. They did.
But it didn't satisfy the thief who then opened fire. A bullet fatally struck Pearce.
His friend's screams echoed on the block.
"He was clearly still in shock, just trying to get someone to call 911 or ambulance to help his friend," Carrie Hammack, who called 911, said.
Pearce's family told 41 Action News the young man had already been robbed twice.
"My wife was repeatedly, was riding him to move out of the city. She was begging for him to move out of the city, and he would say that he felt safe there and it would be fine if anyone wanted to rob him, he would cooperate fully so he would be fine," Joe Pearce, his father, said.
A man who administered CPR to the victim and didn't want to be identified fearing retaliation said crime is up in this area.
According to a map on crimereports.com, there have been at least 26 violent or property crimes reported in the same area over the past three months.
One resident told 41 Action News he's even had to chain his steering wheel to the driver's seat to deter criminals.
Police said the suspect wasn't alone; there were at least two other people in the maroon SUV that kept driving east on 40th Street, then went south on Warwick.
Detectives need anyone who lives in the area and has security cameras outside their homes to call them so they can review that footage.
Anyone with any information is encouraged to call the KCPD Homicide Unit at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
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