Kansas City man accused of fatally shooting the mother of their young children

A Kansas City man has been charged with second-degree murder in the Sunday fatal shooting of the mother of their three children, prosecutors said Monday.

Christopher Spears, 33, was also charged with armed criminal action in the killing of 32-year-old Andrea Dean, who was found shot before 10 a.m. in a residence in the 4300 block of East Linwood Boulevard, according to the Kansas City Police Department.

When officers arrived, three children said their parents were arguing over a phone when their father, identified as Spears, shot Dean, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.

The kids ran to a neighbor’s house. Dean died at the scene.

About three hours later, Spears walked into the fire station at 1505 E. 9th St. and said he had “just killed his baby mama,” according to charging documents. He then gave a handgun to one of the firefighters, court records allege.

Speaking to detectives, Spears said he and Dean were arguing over him sleeping with another woman, records show.

He told police Dean had reached for his gun, which was in his lap, and they tussled over it. The gun “went off,” Spears allegedly told police. He then said he “got control” of it and shot Dean in the head, a detective wrote in a probable cause statement.

Spears did not yet have an attorney listed in court records who could be reached for comment.

At the crime scene Sunday, Dean’s loved ones clutched babies and one another. A neighbor and relatives at the scene said the victim was the mother of three school-age children.

“We wake up to too much of this,” neighbor Jannine Owens said, adding that she lost two stepsons to gun violence in Kansas City, as well as one of her son’s aunts.

Friends said Dean’s mother, sisters and grandfather were among those gathered around the crime scene tape.

“She’s gone,” a woman sobbed nearby. “She’s gone.”

Dean’s death marked the 68th homicide this year in Kansas City, according to data maintained by The Star. Last year, Kansas City suffered the highest number of homicides in the city’s history, recording 182.

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.