KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man says he fought for his life to get out of a Northland home shortly before authorities found another man’s body in the basement following a fire over the weekend.
Colton Stock, 30, was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in Clay County. According to court documents, Stock allegedly attacked a man and fired a shot at him.
“(He) started to swing me around and hit my head, tried to break my neck," Floyd Wood, who survived the attack, told 41 Action News.
Wood said that Stock showed up at his house on Sunday afternoon asking for help moving furniture.
"He's like, 'I have this armoire and this cabinet I need moved out of my house (and) I have no friends to help me, so can you help me move that out?’" Wood said.
Wood and one of his friends went over to Stock's home on North Poe Street to help, but his friend didn’t stay for long
"I did feel uncomfortable in his presence and decided to leave at that point," said Wood's friend, who did not want to be identified.
At the house, Wood said Stock asked him to look at a motorcycle in the basement.
"He started acting all weird because I took my phone out and I was taking pictures of the motor because I wanted to find out what kind of bike it was," Wood said.
As he was about to leave the basement, Wood said that Stock “jumped on top of me.”
"He had his knees on my shoulders,” Wood said. “I got up by the hands and I'm holding myself and I said, 'what are you doing?' He's looking around for something to smash my head. I threw him off me and soon as I did, he ran to the bedroom. I ran out the front door, and he stepped out the front door and took a shot at me.”
That gunfire led police to the house, where officers saw a fire and called the Kansas City Fire Department.
Fire crews eventually discovered a man's body on fire in the basement. Police are investigating the man’s death as a homicide.
The victim was identified Friday as Matthew Calkins, 35, of Gardner, Kansas. No cause of death has been released, but charges in the case are expected next week, according to KCPD.
Police said Tuesday that Stock is a person of interest in the homicide.
Stock remains at the Clay County Jail. He is being held on a $250,000 cash-only bond.
