Kansas City police found a vehicle missing from the scene of a south Kansas City triple homicide Tuesday afternoon, hours after a suspect fled the shooting.
A police commander found the vehicle early Tuesday evening in the 7700 block of N.W. Prairie View Road. That discovery prompted a lockdown of several nearby schools and the cancellation of evening activities while police searched for the suspect. The lockdown was lifted about 7:15 p.m.
Police found the vehicle while looking for a suspect in another crime that occurred Tuesday afternoon about four blocks away.
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A police spokesman shortly before 8:30 p.m. said it was unclear whether the man involved in the assault at the Northland motel was the same person suspected in the triple killing nearly 30 miles away two hours earlier.
That motel crime was reported about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday. Three guests of a Motel 6 in in the 8200 block of N.W. Prairie View said they were physically assaulted by a suspect who didn’t use a weapon and fled on foot.
Police said they could not confirm if the two incidents are connected, but because the vehicle taken from the homicide scene was found nearby they released a description of the motel assault suspect.
He was described as a black man in his late 20s or early 30s. He is about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He was unshaven and was wearing dark pants, a black rag on his head and no shirt.
Many Kansas City officers flocked to the area of Interstate 29 and Barry Road searching for the suspect. Extra officers went at area events and gatherings to provide additional security.
Anyone who may have seen the suspect or has information about either crime is asked to call police or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
Much of the area near Interstate 29 and Barry Road along NW Prairie View Road was blocked off early Tuesday evening as police continued their manhunt for the suspect. Police tape cordoned off a second-floor room at the Motel 6 in the neighborhood shortly before sunset Tuesday night and several police cars were roaming the area.
Earlier Tuesday a quiet south Kansas City cul-de-sac with many older residents was the scene of the city’s worst multiple killing in more than two and a half years.
Three people were killed and two others hospitalized with critical injuries after the incident in the Woodbridge neighborhood east of the Blue Hills Country Club.
Kansas City police were called about 1 p.m. Tuesday to a home on Woodbridge Lane and reported finding one person dead outside. Officers entered the home in a search for suspects or other victims and discovered two other injured people. They were taken to different hospitals.
A short time later, officers reported finding two more people dead in another residence in the cul-de-sac. Officers methodically searched other houses. In some cases they had to force entry into unoccupied houses.
Police were directing any family members concerned about residents to the South Patrol Division at 9701 Marion Park Drive.
Initial reports were that officers were looking for a suspect possibly armed with a shotgun.
Police at the scene were tight-lipped about a possible motive but said the incident did not appear to start with a robbery. They said the victims were all adults.
Officers were conducting a door-to-door search, and residents of the neighborhood were being told to stay inside their homes. Schools in the area were also locked down as a precaution for short periods Tuesday afternoon.
Kathy Hurst, who came to the police command post at Wornall and Blue Ridge Boulevard, said she was concerned about her mother-in-law, who lives in a unit next to a cousin of Hurst. Hurst said she reached the cousin, who told her that police said to stay inside.
Jo Lombardino, a longtime member of the Woodbridge Homes Association, said the neighborhood had long considered itself one of the city’s safest. Residents she talked to Tuesday, she said, “are just heartbroken.”
Lombardino said the neighborhood had regular meetings with police officers who patrol the area and said she used to participate in the area crime patrol.
“This is just mind-boggling,” she said. “We are a very secure community.”
An online crime mapping feature shows only two recent minor incidents reported in the neighborhood, although one of those incidents, a theft, was reported on Aug. 30 at the residence where some of the victims were found.
Lombardino said the subdivision has always had a friendly, neighborly feel. Yearly pool parties in the summer and Christmas parties drew dozens of residents.
“In the last few years we’ve had many young families move in,” she said. “It is a very, very desirable place to live.”
Rick Mayer, president of the Woodbridge Homes Association, said it is a “everybody helps everybody else kind of neighborhood.”
“I’m absolutely in shock about this,” he said.
The side of the neighborhood where the crime occurred is occupied primarily by older residents, while the other side of the development has many younger residents with children, Mayer said.
“Everybody feels comfortable and safe here,” he said.
The killings come during a year in which the city was on pace for its lowest homicide total in more than 40 years. Before Tuesday, Kansas City had 43 homicides in 2014, compared to nearly 70 at the same time last year.
The city’s last triple homicide occurred in January 2012 at 39th Street and Paseo.
