KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It’s not how you want anyone’s school day to start; a 16 year old attacked and robbed at her school bus stop. It happened in the Hickman Mills School District.
Brianna Hull walks to her bus stop every day. Monday morning, she was the first one to arrive. A car carrying five people pulled up, and three of them got out and jumped her. Luckily she wasn’t hurt, but they did get away with something very special.
“She was very shaken up,” said Brianna’s mom, Natasha Cunningham, who says they’ve lived in their neighborhood for 12 years. “It’s not what it used to be. I thought we were safe.”
Per usual, she went to work around six a.m., her husband around 7:15 a.m., and around 7:30 a.m. her daughter walked to her bus stop. She was the first one there.
“At some point in the next five minutes a car, a white car, black trim, late 90s, early 2000s, either Impala or Malibu, pulled up on the other side of the street,” said Cunningham.
She says her daughter said the people inside the car looked like they were in their late teens or early twenties.
“Three people got out, two males and one female, and there were two males in the car, one grabbed her, the other grabbed her violin, and the other began searching her pockets trying to grab her phone, take her backpack, whatever they could get from her,” said Cunningham.
According to the police report, there was a struggle, and when they saw other students coming toward the bus stop, they ran across the street, jumped in the car, and drove off.
“She was very upset and angry also, because that was her violin and she was supposed to be getting ready to try out for Bridges Orchestra and now she doesn’t know what she’s going to do,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham had bought Brianna the $600 antique refurbished violin six years ago. She’s been playing ever since and plays second violin in her high school orchestra.
“She works really hard, practices every night, it’s an outlet for her,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham says she’s just thankful her daughter wasn’t physically hurt. She’s been talking to the bus company trying to move the stop.
But what started out as a nightmare certainly has a happy ending.
“So I heard you play the violin,” said Mike Meyer, from Meyer Music downtown, who heard about what happened.
“I’m also chairman of Band of Angels, which is a Charity that FOX 4 does and collect instruments. I heard that you need a violin. I had a lady come into our store and she donated a violin and she said I really want to see if you could find a really nice home for this. So I wanted to present you with a new violin for you to use at school,” Meyer said. “This is a really nice violin; I have a story about it. Her dad made it for her, and so it’s a special violin and I think you’ll really enjoy it so, I’m so happy that you could have it. You practice hard with that.”
“Thank you so much,” said Brianna. “At school we really don’t have any extra instruments to use, so it’s kind of just borrowing. I just feel really lucky. I feel really special that he would want to give me this instrument that’s very beautiful and handmade and someone really did want a special home for it.”
Brianna says she’s thankful she now has a violin to practice with for tryouts coming up for a city-wide orchestra she was recently nominated for.