06/18/26 02:07:00
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06/18 14:05 CDT An Uber driver for World Cup fans was injured in Kansas City
shootings that also left a man dead
An Uber driver for World Cup fans was injured in Kansas City shootings that
also left a man dead
By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press
An Uber driver taking American fans of Argentina's soccer team to a World Cup
match was among four people injured in a series of shootings in Kansas City,
Missouri, that also left one man dead, police said.
A 22-year-old male suspect, described as armed and dangerous, remained at large
Thursday.
The five shootings occurred Tuesday between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m, in a 5-mile
stretch of Kansas City, three of them on Interstates 70 and 670 as they cut
through downtown. All of the shootings were at least 4 miles away from
Arrowhead Stadium, where Argentina won its first match against Algeria.
Two Argentina fans told Argentine outlet La Nacin that someone in a car came
alongside and fired two shots at the Uber they were riding in, hitting the
driver in the leg. They said they first thought the sound was a car tire
popping until they saw the driver had been hit.
They had to go to the police station to provide statements about what happened.
Officers then took them to the stadium in patrol cars, they said. The driver's
injuries were not life-threatening, police Capt. Jacob Becchina said.
That shooting and two others on the interstates occurred while cars were
traveling east, one of them from neighboring Kansas, police said. The others
occurred further east on Truman Road, a major thoroughfare through the city.
Police said three adults and a minor, a teenager, were injured, and all were
hospitalized, though only one adult had life-threatening injuries, Becchina
said.
About 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a report of a vehicle crashing into a
pole along Truman Road, east of the other shootings. The driver was taken to a
hospital, and workers there discovered what appeared to be a gunshot wound
while treating him. He died of his injuries.
"Victims all indicated they were driving down the highway or roadway when one
or more shots were fired into their vehicles," Becchina said in an email.
Becchina said detectives believe the non-fatal shootings occurred "in close
succession," from west to east, connected by the one suspect.
Police later tracked the suspect to a home in the suburb of Independence, about
2 miles further east of where the fatal shooting victim was found, and a
standoff ensued. But when police entered the home about 8 a.m. Wednesday, the
suspect was not there.
Officials across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas, also have a warrant out
for the suspect over a June 11 incident involving an illegal discharge of a
firearm, Nancy Chartrand, the spokesperson for its police department said.
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