LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A 16-year-old is charged with shooting another teen in Lee’s Summit. It happened outside Landmark2 Skate.
Landmark2 Skate will celebrate it’s 45th anniversary next month. Last Friday was the first time the owner, Charlie Johnson, saw gun violence at his rink. Now, he’s implementing some stricter polices.
On Wednesday, police arrested a 16-year-old from Kansas City for shooting another teen in the rink’s parking lot last Friday. Lee’s Summit police said there was a fight in this parking lot before the shooting. The victim was 14 years old. Investigators said he was shot in the leg and is now recovering at home.
“Sad,” said Charlie Johnson, owner of Landmark2 Skate. “Extraordinarily sad. The day has come when we all have to look over our shoulder and see what’s going on. It’s spilled down into the 14-year-old, 15-year-old and now 16-year-old, the one that pulled the trigger. It’s hard to take. Really hard to take.”
Johnson always tried to foster a family-friendly environment at his rink and now, he’s making changes to support that.
“We are definitely coming down harder on behavior within the four walls,” Johnson said. “Be a little less tolerant to things that shouldn’t be going on. Kids will find it as a shock in the beginning, but I think they’ll appreciate it once they get behind it.”
Johnson said be respectful — or get out.
“They’ll be asked to calm down, and if they choose to ignore our rules — we’ve got some pretty basic rules,” Johnson said. “How to behave in public. And that’s what they’re going to be expected to do. We were known and tried to create the image of being the family fun skate center. That’s what we did then, and we are going straight forward with that … If you’re not family friendly when you come in, you’re going to be asked to leave.”
The rink will also make some security changes.
“We’ve got a big thing going on on video to make certain that we’ve improved it,” Johnson said. “We are definitely coming down harder on behavior within the four walls.”
The rink’s owner says the victim started coming here this fall and was always respectful to him.