KSHB 41 News anchor Taylor Hemness reports on stories across Kansas, including a focus on consumer issues. You can contact Taylor by email.
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A Kansas family is hoping that someone can come forward with new evidence in the case of a shooting that resulted in the death of a husband and father.
In January, I told you about the family of Patrick Leroy Lenning. On a Saturday in July of 2021, Lenning went with his adult daughter to Kansas City, Kansas, to help her complete the purchase of a car.
They met the seller in the parking lot of the Community America Credit Union on State Avenue. While there, gunfire broke out in a nearby sporting goods store after an altercation inside.
One of the people involved, fleeing from the gunfire, drove his car into the credit union parking lot. He crashed into another car, which hit Patrick. He died at the hospital that day.
Last week, I sat down with his daughter for the first time. She says her memory still bears the scars of what happened to her dad.
"I just remember it so clearly, everything that happened,” Samantha Lenning-Watson told me. “Hearing the gunshots, our reaction to it, and then seeing the car coming. And then, I remember everything that I said, everything that I said to him (the driver) when he got out of the car."
I've been working with this family for more than a year as they've waited for answers. I first interviewed Lenning’s widow Patricia, in late 2024.
The family got one answer in January, more than four years after the fact, when the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office charged Angelo Hill in Lenning's murder, as well as criminal discharge of a firearm, and aggravated assault.
Authorities allege that Hill was the man firing shots in the nearby store.
Hill is already in prison in another state, serving a sentence on a separate conviction.
But so far, no one else has been charged with a crime, including the driver who hit and killed Lenning. Samantha told me that she basically held that man at the scene until police arrived.
"I would eventually like to see the security footage of what happened inside the store that day,” Lenning-Watson said. “I was outside the store that day, so I don't know what happened in the store before it led out to the shooting in the parking lot."
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department Cold Case Unit Det. Lily Szewc has played a key role in the investigation into Lenning's death.
I asked about the case and the likelihood of more charges being filed, including against that driver.
"It was a complex case in the fact that there were so many different things that happened, or chain of events, that might lead you in one direction, when you should be going in a different one,” Szewc told me. "We are charging based on what we have links to, and right now, that person (the driver who hit Lenning) is not being charged, and I won't say never. It could change, but right now it does not appear that that's happening."
Lenning's widow and daughter tell me that they're thankful for the work that has been done, but feel that more is possible.
"I am very antsy again right now,” Patricia Lenning said. “I am not sleeping again at night. I've lost a lot of motivation. I move forward, but then I go backwards again. I want to be more clearly informed when things are happening, and my life not be on hold. I keep looking for case numbers, and that's causing even more anxiety."
"I want to know what happens now with Mr. Hill," Lenning’s widow told me.
"If anybody has a tip for what really went down that day, if you have any connection to the individuals that were there that day, now is your time to come forward and speak," Lenning-Watson said.
I've asked the Wyandotte County District Attorney's office for an interview on this case, but they've declined.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Lenning family met with Wyandotte County D.A. Mark Dupree to get more clarity on the charges that his office has, and has not, filed.
After that meeting, Patricia Lenning told me that she feels better about the state of the case, and that Dupree intends to bring Angelo Hill back to Wyandotte County to face trial.
The Lenning family, and KCKPD, is asking anyone with information about what happened that day, July 3, 2021, to call Crimestoppers, at 816 474-TIPS (8477).
Those tips are collected anonymously, and any rewards earned because of those tips are given anonymously as well.
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