KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five people were killed in less than 24 hours in a particularly violent period across the Kansas City area.
Four of the homicides occurred in Kansas City with the fifth in Kansas City, Kansas. One killing took place Tuesday at a middle school, another later that day in broad daylight.
Kansas City has recorded 41 homicides so far this year. At this time last year, the city had suffered 42 homicides. Last year became the second deadliest year on record following a record number of slayings in 2020.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he hopes to address violence prevention.
“We can’t keep having violence like this, let it be episodic in some ways, like we saw yesterday, and then just move on like it didn’t happen,” Lucas said.
The recent killings also has Lucas looking at ways to use federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act to help fund anti-violence prevention programs across the city.
Kansas City is scheduled to receive a total of $195 million from the federal government. City leaders will determine how the money is spent.
“These aren’t things necessarily that just more enforcement, just more money to the police department would have solved and would have stopped,” Lucas said.
Kansas City’s high homicide rate has been a persistent problem. In January 2020, Lucas wrote an op-ed for The Star saying reducing violent crime was his top priority.
That year ended up being the deadliest year in the city’s recorded history with 182 homicides. In 2021, the city saw 157 killings, the second deadliest year.
Lucas said he hopes to help stop violence using federal funds distributed from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March 2021. One of those initiatives could fund mental health services for youth. Lucas said his office had received a plan from Children’s Mercy Hospital that would expand those services at an estimated cost of $3 million.
“We’ve got a mental health crisis in Kansas City and it’s not just young people,” Lucas said. “But I think yesterday, we saw more than ever how much it impacts our young people.”
City leaders across the country have announced they would use ARPA funds to help decrease violence in their respective cities.
