Accused serial killer mentally incompetent to stand trial at this time, judge rules

A Kansas City man suspected of killing six people over the course of several months in a string of shootings mostly along Indian Creek Trail has been found mentally unfit to stand trial at this time, a judge ruled Monday.

Fredrick Scott, 26, appeared in Jackson County Circuit Court on the question of his mental competency after he has remained in custody nearly four years since he was arrested in connection to the murders. A re-evaluation of Scott’s mental fitness will occur later this summer.

The deaths began in 2016 and spanned several months as Kansas City police sought to find answers when several people were found shot dead near walking paths around the city. The department initially rejected the theory that the crimes were carried out by a serial killer but admitted there were “obvious similarities” between each death.

Scott was arrested in August 2017. At the time, Scott allegedly told detectives he was angry about the 2015 shooting death of his half brother on his father’s side.

Scott had minor run-ins with the legal system in his youth. One referenced an incident, which garnered international attention, at Center Alternative School in 2014, during which Scott allegedly said he wanted “to shoot the school up, Columbine-style” and kill himself and “kill all white people,” The Star previously reported.

Scott is Black and all of the victims he is suspected of shooting are white. Five were middle-aged men and another was a 64-year-old homeless woman.

Shortly after his arrest, his mother came out in his defense saying Scott suffered from delusions as a result of undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. In an earlier interview with The Star, she said she hoped her son would receive needed mental health care.

Scott has been accused in the killings of Steven Gibbons, 57; John Palmer, 54; David Lenox, 67; Timothy S. Rice, 57; Mike Darby, 61; and Karen Harmeyer, 64.