KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It’s been three months since a 10-year-old KCK girl was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting at her home. With each passing day, Machole Stewart’s family becomes more frustrated because there’s been no arrest in the case.
Family members hosted a candlelight vigil around a memorial of stuffed animals and candles to remember the fifth-grader.
“That’s my baby girl. You know I no longer have her,” said mom Angela Fowler.
Machole was at home playing with her older brother and a cousin when police say a gunman drove by and suddenly turned their fun into a frightening time.
“She tried to run to the bedroom to hide. She’s a 10-year-old kid, afraid, didn’t know what to do,” said grandmother Krystal Stewart.
Police say that night the person in an SUV sprayed the family’s small, white house with multiple bullets and quickly sped away. Machole was shot once in her head and died instantly.
“I don’t get to enjoy her like everybody gets to enjoy their kids, and wake up with them and go to parties and birthdays and all that stuff. We don’t get to do that with Machole no more,” Fowler said.
The family’s frustrations are growing because they say they’ve repeatedly reached out to police and told detectives everything they know.
“It’s been three long months. You know who did it. Just go after them,” Fowler said.
As of Friday, the person who killed the innocent girl, who loved to dance and make her family laugh, has not been caught.
“Every day I cry, I’m getting angrier and angrier,” Stewart said.
Machole’s relatives believe the shooting that claimed their loved one’s young life is linked to an ongoing feud between two groups of teenaged boys and young men.
“And I want answers and I want them now. I don’t want them next month, next year. I want answers now,” Stewart said.
KCK police declined to talk on camera, but say detectives are still looking for the girl’s killer and that the unsolved murder hasn’t grown cold.
“I want justice ASAP! I’m gonna fight until the day I die,” Stewart said.
Police say so far more than 50 tips have come in, and a $7,000 reward is also being offered in this case. If you know anything that will help police make an arrest, call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS. A