Police: 3 dead, 2 wounded in early morning shooting at Kansas City bar
May 21, 2023, 2:37 AM | Updated: 2:54 pm
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A security guard was one of the three people killed in a shooting at a Kansas City bar early Sunday that also wounded two others, including one critically wounded, according to family members.
Police haven’t yet identified the victims, and they didn’t release many details Sunday about what led to the shooting just before the Klymax Lounge’s 1:30 a.m. closing time. And no one answered the phone at the bar Sunday afternoon after it was scheduled to open.
Honystye Chancellor told the Kansas City Star that her stepfather, 41-year-old Jason McConnell, was killed in the shooting while working security at the door of the bar. After she rushed to the bar, Chancellor said, people in the crowd told her that the shooting happened just as the local rapper who was performing at the club was leaving.
The rapper who performs under the name “Nutty Still Gassin” had posted a live video from the club earlier in the night before the shooting happened on his Facebook page.
Kansas City police said that when multiple officers arrived at the bar, they found five victims and began providing medical aid.
Police said two of the victims died at the scene — one was found inside the bar and the other was outside the building in Kansas City, Missouri. A third victim died at the hospital. Details about the circumstances that led to the shooting were not immediately available, and it wasn’t immediately clear where the victims were when they were shot.
Police said the victims were all adults, but their ages and identities were not immediately available.
Chancellor told the newspaper that McConnell was well known at the club because he was friendly and could talk to anyone. He also worked at a diner and managed a wireless communications store in the area, she said.
Chancellor said that McConnell encouraged her to turn away from violence after she got into fights often as a kid, and he was “good and nice and always trying to keep us on the right path.”
She said McConnell was a sneakerhead who likely owned over 100 pairs of shoes and had a 15-year-old son. Chancellor said she and her brother spent the night curled up in bed together with their mother after she returned from Klymax after they got the news.
On the sidewalk outside the bar, a small memorial with flowers and chalk writing featuring the victims’ names popped up in the hours following the incident.
