KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three people were killed and two others wounded — including one critically — in a shooting at a Kansas City bar early Sunday, police said.
Multiple officers responded to the shooting at Klymax Lounge that was reported just before the bar’s 1:30 a.m. closing time. They found multiple victims and immediately began providing medical aid, Kansas City police said in an email.
Police said two of the victims died at the scene — one was found inside the bar and the other was outside the building in Kansas City, Missouri. A third victim died at the hospital. Details about the circumstances that led to the shooting were not immediately available, and it wasn’t immediately clear where the victims were when they were shot.
Police said the victims were all adults, but their ages and identities were not immediately available. But family members identified one of the victims.
The bar featured a performance by a local rap artist Saturday night who performs under the name “Nutty Still Gassin.” He posted a live video from the club earlier in the night before the shooting happened on his Facebook page. No one answered the phone at the bar Sunday after it was scheduled to open.
Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators were at the scene Sunday morning, gathering evidence and talking to potential witnesses, police said.
Honystye Chancellor told the Kansas City Star that her stepfather, 41-year-old Jason McConnell, was killed in the shooting while working security at the door of the bar. After she rushed to the bar, Chancellor said, people in the crowd told her that the rapper had finished performing and was just leaving when the shooting happened.
Jason McConnell was working security at the club when he was among three killed in a shooting that also injured two. He was “good and nice and always trying to keep us on the right path,” his stepdaughter said. https://t.co/qyYoeiPWCR
— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) May 21, 2023
Chancellor said McConnell was well known at the club because he was friendly and could talk to anyone. He also worked at a diner and managed a wireless communications store in the area, according to Chancellor.
Chancellor told the newspaper that McConnell encouraged her to turn away from violence after she got into fights often as a kid, and he was “good and nice and always trying to keep us on the right path.”
She said McConnell was a sneakerhead who likely owned over 100 pairs of shoes and also had a 15-year-old son. Chancellor said she and her brother spent the night curled up in bed together with their mother after she returned from Klymax after they got the news.
