Death of person found in burning car in Kansas City ruled a homicide

The death of person found inside a burning car in Kansas City is now being investigated as a homicide connected to a nearby shooting, police said Friday.

Kansas City police had been conducting a suspicious death investigation after being called about 6 a.m. Thursday to meet firefighters at a car fire in the 8100 block of Indiana Avenue. Firefighters told police there was a person dead inside the vehicle.

About an hour earlier, police had responded to reports of gunfire in the 8500 block of Euclid Avenue. Arriving officers found a man outside with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital.

Police determined that the two cases are connected, Capt. Leslie Foreman, a Kansas City Police Department spokeswoman, said in a news release.

“We do not have any further details on how they are connected at this time,” she said. The two locations are about 1.5 miles apart.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office was still working on a final determination on cause of death of the person found in the car, she said.

“It could take weeks or even months for the medical examiner to determine the identity of the victim that was found inside the vehicle,” Foreman said.

The homicide and shooting were part of the violence that erupted over a 10-hour span in Kansas City during which three people were killed in homicides and three others were injured in shootings.

The killing marks the 56th homicide of the year for Kansas City. By this time last year, there were 60 homicides. Last year ended with 182, the most in the city’s history in a single year, according to data maintained by The Star.

Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

Gun violence is the subject of a statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.

To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.