KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Two males were found dead, and another was hurt at a KCK park in a shooting, people living nearby now have questions about their safety.
On Friday KCK investigators identified them as Fabian Arriaga, 26, and Jose Morales, 22. The third person who was hurt hasn’t been identified.
The triple shooting kept police busy at Kensington Park near 29th and State Street in KCK for hours on Wednesday night. Investigators still aren’t saying much about what happened, but fed up neighbors are speaking out.
Pastor Luther Eatman and his wife have lived in that KCK neighborhood for almost 20 years. They say it used to be fairly quiet, but in the last two months the couple says gun violence has ruined their neighborhood.
“It wasn’t like a pistol, it sounded like a cannon to me and I heard about three, about three of those,” Lanita Eatman told FOX 4.
She says around 7 p.m., gunfire rang out again, this time right across the street from the couple’s home at Kensington Park. Bullets flew as a group of children from an area church met for a weekly event at a nearby recreation center at the park. Fortunately, not one of those boys or girls was hurt.
But again police say two people were found dead in the park, a third person critically hurt after being shot. Pastor Eatman says he’s heard the three shootings involved “three young, gang members.” Two of whom he says apparently had guns.
“Had nothing to do with the kids that were in the programs there. They’re innocent. They decided to pick this spot to air out their differences,” Pastor Eatman said.
The Eatmans say deputies with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office routinely patrol this area. Still, the couple says the shootings keep happening and that’s why they’d like to see more of their neighbors take a stand against the gun violence.
