KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Neighbors are demanding action after four deaths in the same South Kansas City shopping center within a three month period. The latest shooting in the Loma Vista Shopping Center at 87th and Blue Ridge Thursday claimed the lives of two brothers – fathers of five children.
Hickman Mills United Neighborhoods says despite years of raising concerns about the shopping center’s condition little has been done.
48-year-old Reginald Lamar was shot and killed on October 25 inside Little Caesar’s where he worked. Just over a month later Dante Garth, 20, was shot and killed outside the restaurant in the parking lot at 87th and Blue Ridge.
“Every single day that I worked there I was worried that something was going to happen,” Little Caesar’s employee Mary George said.
She was working on January 2 when more shots rang out in the parking lot next door in front of the Save A Lot and Dollar General.
“I went outside and I was taking pictures to send to my boss and my family this is happening again, someone got shot again,” she said.
She tried to call her cousin Sam Hughes, the Save A Lot butcher. His wife Crystal also works there.
“I got the call from my shift lead who said, ‘Crystal your truck is in the parking lot. Its been shot up and I think Sam has been killed.’ She said ‘I’m pretty sure his brother has been too.’” Crystal Hughes described the call.
Sam Hughes, 36, and Jeff Hughes, 33, were killed. Combined, they leave behind 5 children. After four shooting deaths in less than three months, the men’s mother Beth Cooper is left to wonder, “What is it about 87th and Blue Ridge Boulevard?”
“It’s just a crime magnet that’s all it is. You’ve got five abandoned stores here,” Hickman Mills United Neighborhoods co-chair Brandon Wright said.
The latest three homicides are under investigation. According to Kansas City Police the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office declined charges in the October shooting death.
After frequent robberies, vandalism and now four deaths, the group is demanding action.
“We need the property owner to step up clean up the property add some security make this a place where people want to shop,” Wright said.
For now, the women who work in the shopping center where the Hughes brothers were killed have no plans of returning to work.
“All of our safety is at risk in that shopping center it just doesn’t make sense why this is happening,” George said.
“They didn’t deserve this,” Crystal Hughes said. A GoFundMe has been established for the family.
Police were spotted patrolling the shopping center Wednesday. The neighborhood group vows to fight to save Loma Vista. On January 18th it will start its Neighborhood Empowerment Project. Teens will be cleaning up the streets on weekends. It’s a paid position. You can email contact@hmunited.org to sign up.
Cooper isn’t so sure the shopping center is worth saving.
“The whole shopping center in my opinion needs to be bulldozed,” she said.
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