KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
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On Aug. 24, 2025, 24-year-old Kane Taddese was in a parking lot after a concert at the Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, when a shooter cut his life short.
His family describes him as a hard-working young man who was struck by gunfire in a mass shooting at a surface parking lot at 13th Street and Grand Boulevard.
Six months later, Taddese's murder remains unsolved.
“His dad’s never going to heal," Irene Varner, Taddese's great-aunt, said. "His sister and brother are never going to heal. We’re never going to heal. It turned our family upside down.”
Taddese was one of the two victims killed in the shooting that injured an additional three people.
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Roughly 102 spent shell casings and three firearms were recovered from the scene, according to court documents.
Kolton Schultz and Jaylynn Nelson are charged with fourth-degree assault for their alleged actions during a fight that led up to the shooting. The fight left Taddese unconscious on the parking lot pavement before he was shot in the head and killed, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.
Schultz was one of the three victims who sustained non-fatal injuries, according to court documents.
Varner drove from Iowa to Kansas City to speak with KSHB 41 News in an exclusive interview about her great-nephew's unsolved murder. She's frustrated with the progress of his case.
Varner calls Taddese her nephew, and he called her by her nickname, Aunt Heidi.
“He was always joking, and he was a good kid," she said. "Who at the age of 23, 24 can go to Hawaii and work, go to Colorado and work?”
Varner says Taddese worked in HVAC and that he enjoyed the travel that came with the job. She said before he was killed, he was set to head to Canada.
His younger sister, Manika Taddese, says she clings to the memory of visiting her brother in Arizona, where he worked for a few years.
Manika Taddese, a current University of Kansas student, said she and her friends visited her brother for the 2023 Guaranteed Rate Bowl when KU played the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Phoenix.
"He was going to the games — the Suns games — he was hiking, taking all of Arizona has to offer in," she said.
The last memory Manika Taddese has of her brother was a FaceTime call the day before he was killed. Their younger brother, Jamal, was looped in on the call, too.
“I hadn’t seen him in a couple months prior to that phone call, so I was just checking in," she said. "He looked good, he seemed good. He was playing a game, per usual, after working.”
Manika Taddese says every day since her brother was killed, she experiences a new emotion, but said she tries to be strong for her brothers and her father.
Both she and Varner say they were part of a recent family Zoom call with the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office. The family says it has requested a few calls with the prosecutor's office to get updates on the investigation and case.
“We feel that we’re not getting anywhere with the county attorney, we’re not getting anywhere with the detectives," Varner said.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson was part of that recent Zoom call.
KSHB 41 News reached out to the prosecutor's office with an interview request for Johnson, but it was declined.
"During that call, Prosecutor Johnson expressed her sympathies and assured the family that the office is doing everything within the legal and ethical authority to obtain justice for Kane," Jazzlyn Johnson, the spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said as part of a statement to KSHB 41 News. "The investigation into the shooting that killed Kane remains active and ongoing. But the office is also committed to holding accountable those whose criminal actions occurred before his death, within the boundaries of the law."
The statement went on to say that, based on available evidence, which is described as surveillance video, prosecutors decided to charge Schultz and Nelson with fourth-degree assault. The charge applies when someone "recklessly causes physical injury to another person. That could include shoving, slapping, and punching," the statement said.
"Think of a bar fight," Jazzlyn Johnson said in the statement.
Schultz, Nelson and others confronted Taddese as he was sitting on a barrier, according to a press release from the prosecutor's office. Taddese stood up and Schultz and Nelson pushed him back and forth before Nelson pushed him into the barrier.
When Taddese's friend tried to intervene, an unknown male pushed him, per the release. The prosecutor's office said Taddese ran over and placed the unknown male in a headlock. That's when both Taddese and the unknown male fell to the ground.
Once Taddese was on the ground, Nelson and two others — who are not identified — "struck the victim (Taddese) in the back of the head, kicked him in the back, stomped on him, and kicked him in the face, leaving him motionless," per the press release.
Again, as Taddese remained unconscious, Nelson stomped on the back of his head and neck, according to the prosecutor's office.
The prosecutor's office said Taddese never regained consciousness before he was shot and killed.
“Kane did not deserve this," Varner said. "He was sitting on a concrete barrier, minding his own business.”
Varner calls the fourth-degree assault charges a "slap on the wrist." It's a class A misdemeanor under Missouri law.
Varner shared an apparent cell phone video with KSHB 41 News reporter Lily O'Shea Becker that Varner says shows the fight and the ensuing gunshots.
It's unclear who took the video.
KSHB 41 News reviewed the video, which shows Taddese and the unknown male falling to the ground as Taddese holds him in a headlock. Due to the size of the crowd surrounding the fight, it's unclear when Taddese lost consciousness. The video does show multiple people assaulting Taddese, specifically targeting his head, before and after he became motionless.
The video shows someone grabbing items out of Taddese's pockets as he was unconscious.
Once the crowd scatters a bit, two people begin trying to help Taddese.
"Landon, grab water," a male who is tending to Taddese yells.
A female tending to Taddese is seen pressing on his chest.
"He is unconscious, not dead," she said.
About a minute later, gunshots ring out. The person taking the video and others begin to run.
A male is heard repeatedly saying, "I'm shot," before the video ends.
In court documents, detectives describe videos they obtained from witnesses, victims and nearby businesses. While the probable cause statement for Schultz contains many redactions, it details the moment an unidentified male reached into an unconscious person's pockets. The name of that person is redacted.
The probable cause statement further details a witness's statement to police about that moment.
The witness told police two males confronted the unidentified male who was reaching into the unconscious person's pockets and asked if he was going to share. The witness told police the unidentified male told the two others, "no." After another exchange of words, gunfire broke out between those two parties, according to the witness's statement to police.
“You could see him lying there, he couldn’t move," Varner said. "I could tell you, if Kane could’ve gotten up, he would have ran, soon as the first shot went, out he would have ran, but he didn’t get a choice.”
In its statement to KSHB 41 News, the prosecutor's office said it has to treat the initial fight and the shooting as separate incidents. The statement said Nelson and Schultz were not the shooters and did not cause Taddese's death.
"We understand the family's frustration and pain," the statement said in part. "No charge or conviction could ever adequately address the loss of Kane. But prosecutors are bound by their oath to follow applicable law and can only file charges supported by evidence they can prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt."
Former Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Parsons is not involved in this case, but she has worked on similar ones. After 23 years, she left the prosecutor's office in 2015 to work for a private practice and continues to practice law.
Her thoughts echo the prosecutor's office's statement.
“From the family’s perspective, ‘No, this was one melee that wound up killing my son. I don’t care about all these small things,’ but the state has to. That is their job," Parsons said.
It's been over six months since Taddese was killed. No one has been charged with his murder.
“It should’ve been solved," Varner said. "It was all on video.”
Both Varner and Manika Taddese say they believe there will be justice.
“We’re not going to be able to heal if we don’t get justice because his murder’s going to be unsolved. That ain’t happening," Varner said.
As of Feb. 25, KCPD says no additional suspects have been identified. A spokesperson for KCPD says detectives are following leads as they come in.
The prosecutor's office said it is working with KCPD on the homicide investigation.
Nelson posted 10% of her $5,000 bond on Nov. 25, 2025, five days after she was charged, according to court documents.
Schultz posted the same bond amount — $500 — on Dec. 1, 2025, per court documents. He is due back in court on March 19.
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