KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A man walks out to get the morning paper and finds a body in the yard next door.
Police say a man’s body was found outside around one o’clock Thursday afternoon. The body was found near the intersection of north 47th and Garfield in Kansas City, Kansas.
FOX 4 spoke with a man who lives very close to where the body was found. He didn’t want his identity revealed for safety reasons but says what he witnessed Wednesday was unlike anything he’s ever seen.
People in the 1800 block of north 47th street went to bed New Year’s Eve night. Soon after, they were woken up to the sound of gunshots.
“There was about six of them at four o’clock. It was all simultaneous,” he said.
Hours later he walked out his front door to get the morning paper.
“There was a body lying on the ground to my right. I walked up and saw it,” said the man.
He says the body had turned blue and looked to have been there for hours.
“It looked like he had been shot center mass in the chest. Probably close up because the blood stain was no bigger than a hand,” he said.
He says the victim does not live in this home and he had never seen him before.
Police say the man was in his 50s and was found out in between two homes. Neighbors we talked to say the blue home has been vacant for years but they say a woman and her young son live in the gold home next door.
“She’s a single mom. I don’t know if she’s got a job or not. I know she tries to make ends meet, I normally see different cars in the driveway; all throughout the month, a different car every day,” said the neighbor.
One neighbor says he hasn’t seen that woman since early Wednesday evening and neighbors have been trying to get in touch with her to make sure she was okay.
“It was pretty crazy. It’s been a pretty crazy day for the first of the year,” he said.
Police are still calling this a death investigation and are not releasing the victim’s cause of death. They’re asking you to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS if you know anything about this.
