Bus struck in midst of deadly gunfire near middle school in Kansas City, Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.

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UPDATE, Sept. 23 | The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department released the identity of the person killed in Monday's shooting near a middle school in KCK.

The victim has been identified as Stephen David Bagley Jr., 36, of Kansas City, Kansas, according to KCKPD.

ORIGINAL REPORT, Sept. 21 | Police are investigating a Monday morning homicide near Carl Bruce Middle School in Kansas City, Kansas.

Around 7 a.m., a school bus near 18th Street and Quindaro Boulevard was struck by gunfire in the midst of a deadly shooting.

KSHB 41's Wyandotte County reporter Rachel Henderson was told by Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools that 10 students were on the bus at the time of the shooting. No one aboard the bus was struck or hurt.

The district also said the students were high-school aged.

Police say they were called to the area near 18th and Longwood at 6:39 a.m., where they found a man with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. It marked KCK's 17th homicide.

Police say the shooting appeared to target the victim, not the bus or the students on board.

"We believe that this is an incident that was targeting the individual, not the school bus or the children that were on it. The school bus happened to be on its normal routine route in the area, and when the gunshots erupted, it was inadvertently struck," Captain Joshua Messick said.

Matt Reeb/KSHB 41

A hole was visible in one of the bus windows.

The district gave students the option to stay home Monday and provided counseling at school.

Messick said the department's homicide numbers are still down this year compared to last year.

"Our homicide stats are still down this year from last year. We continue to drop our homicide rate year after year," Messick said. "Unfortunately, this is another homicide, but we’re still moving in a good direction overall."

He added that earlier this month, they were at the lowest year-to-date number of 14 and credited community outreach as an effective preventative measure.

"Any time a homicide occurs, there's a loss. So it's obviously unfortunate," Messick said. "We don’t want homicides to occur."

Shelley Coulter, executive director of Groundwork NRG, works near the scene of the shooting at 1913 Quindaro. She said people reached out to her Monday morning to see if she was okay, and that's how she learned what happened.

Matt Reeb/KSHB 41

"I'm just wondering, what is happening in our community right now? Where are we going to be safe? Are our children safe?" Coulter said.

Coulter said the impact on the children on that bus was not lost on her.

"It hits me because now the children have trauma," Coulter said.

A family gathered at the victim's home just down the street from the scene.

The family members KSHB 41 approached did not want to comment on camera but were emotional and said they were upset to see this happen, especially so close to the victim's home.

Coulter called on the community to come together in the wake of the shooting.

"When parents got to work, and they put them on the bus, we assume that they're going to be safely taken to school and home. But in the midst of it, we have community. We have to start caring more about one another," Coulter said.

Police said no suspect is in custody as of Monday afternoon.

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