RAYTOWN, Mo. — Gunfire ended the life of a metro teenearly Friday morning.
Makayla Brooks, 17, died from injuries in a shooting inside a home near Blue Ridge Boulevard and Sterling at about 1 a.m.
Katie Henshaw lives across the street from where Brooks lived with her mom. Henshaw and her grandfather, Bruce Roggy, said for the 6 years they have known the Brooks family, it was not a good environment there.
“I would always tell her I am here for you if you need to talk. I made sure that was clear to her but, she would always just say, ‘It`s OK.’ Basically she is used to it. This has been her life for a while, and that is all that she has known,” Henshaw said.
“I think there were four of five kids that didn`t live there living there, weren`t supposed to be living there,” Roggy said.
Roggy said non-relative teenagers lived in the home and did drugs and drank alcohol. Fights and emotional abuse, they said, led the sweet 17-year-old to drop out of high school, and her life spiraled downward.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol has taken over this investigation, but hasn’t said anything about this homicide nor a suspect.