KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One day after a seven-month-old baby was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Kansas City, Kan., community activists are questioning why so many innocent children are victims of adult violence around the metro.
Police say JaQuail Mansaw was killed when someone drove by his family’s home on North Early Street and sprayed it with bullets. He was shot in the back and later died at the hospital. He is the fourth child killed by gunfire in our area since October.
Six-year-old Angel Hooper was shot outside a South Kansas City, Mo., gas station with her father in mid-October. Two men have been charged in her murder.
Nine days later, 10-year-old Machole Stewart was killed in a drive-by shooting at her home near 15th and New Jersey in Kansas City, Kan.
Back in December, someone shot and killed Kahlif L’ron Hampton at his house on North 70th Terrace.
Police are still searching for those responsible in the cases of Machole, Kahlif, and now JaQuail.
“It makes you sick in the stomach,” said Alvin Brooks of AdHoc Group Against Crime. “It makes you angry. It makes you say, ‘What’s happening to us as a society?’ The mentality of no respect for life, that we have a right to live far before our time.”
Brooks believes the senseless violence should spark outrage among everyone in the community, and that families, churches, neighborhood organizations and city leaders must work together to make a change.
