KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A grieving mother pledges to stop the violence, joining her Kansas City community in a neighborhood canvass more than three months after her teenage daughter was found murdered at a city water park.
LaShonda Kane said it was incredibly difficult to return to the Bay Water Park, the scene of the crime where prosecutors believe three teenagers assaulted and repeatedly shot her 14-year-old daughter, Alexis, on Jan. 11.
“This is really hard for me,” she said, “because I miss her so much and she didn’t deserve this at all.”
But LaShonda said she’s dedicated to ensuring no other parent ever has to feel her pain.
“It’s very hard for me to stand here, but I know I have to do it to save the community’s children,” she said. “So I just wanted to use this as an example for all of us to come forward and to stick together.”
She joined community leaders and dozens of volunteers Thursday night to canvass nearby neighborhoods and pass out Jackson County COMBAT door hangers that read “Too many shot. Hurt. Dead. Silence is killing us” – and encouraged people to report crime when they see it and stand together to make their neighborhoods safer.
“I think this is a good way that we can kind of reach out and stick together,” LaShonda said, “and kind of stop the violence and bring us all together and just say, ‘No, we’re not going to accept this anymore. Enough is enough. We done lost too many innocent children.’”