KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police arrested a suspect Thursday in the shooting that injured two people at Sun Fresh Market earlier in the week.
KCPD said that the arrest took place north of the river without incident. The suspect is a male juvenile.
Police were called Monday to 31st Street and Prospect Avenue on a reported shooting inside the supermarket. A man and a teenage girl were injured in the shooting.
Local leaders and pastors came together at the market Tuesday to assure the community that they are committed to stopping gun violence. They asked people to speak up about these shooting, because, if not, the violence will continue and more people will get hurt.
On Thursday, inside the Sun Fresh on Prospect Avenue, customers went about their business.
Among them, a familiar face, Pat Clarke, a community activist and president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association.
Clake shops at the store almost every other day since the store's grand opening in mid-June.
"We've been waiting on a store like this for years and now that we have it, you know, I tell people all the time this is our store," Clarke told 41 Action News. "Whatever happens here, it happens to us."
Which makes Monday's shooting so disheartening for Clarke.
The gunman opened fire by the front entrance of the store filled with families.
The bullets injured an innocent young woman carrying a stack of grocery baskets and wounded an armed man who, police say, was the suspect's intended target.
"At this point, what do we do? We move on. We work to make sure that this don't happen again," Clarke said.
Store owner John Lipari is now in the midst of working with the city to beef up security.
"Our plan in the first place was to have off-duty policemen here. That didn't work out from the beginning because of scheduling and stuff like that," Lipari said.
But that will be one noticeable change in the near future.
"Maybe it'll make people feel at ease and feel safe when they come in here," Lipari said.
Lipari says he plans to meet with city leaders and police on Monday.
Another reassuring fact, the arrest of the suspected gunman made in 72 hours.
"Quick reaction. You know, in other cases a lot of folks don't want to say nothing, you know. So if this is the guy that they got and this is the guy that did this, I say 'good job,'" Clarke said.
There's no word yet on when the suspected shooter will make his first court appearance.
