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2 Dead, 15 Injured Outside A Kansas City Club Late Sunday

The 9ine Ultra Lounge in Kansas City, Missouri.
Sam Zeff
/
KCUR 89.3
The 9ine Ultra Lounge in Kansas City, Missouri.

Updated at 5 p.m. Monday

Two people died and 15 were injured in a shooting late Sunday outside of a nightclub near U.S. 40 and Noland Road in Kansas City.

Officers were called to 9ine Ultra Lounge at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, and found a dead woman and man, according to the Associated Press. At least 15 other people were taken or drove themselves to area hospitals; early Monday, at least three were listed in critical condition.

Police identified the dead gunman as 29-year-old Jahron Swift of Kansas City. He had multiple weapons, according to the KCPD Chief Rick Smith.

Smith also said the 9ine Ultra Lounge was on the department's radar and officers had made periodic checks of the parking lot, including on Sunday night.

"I know there were three sergeants who made a swing through the lot at various stages and the last one left about a minute prior to the shooting," Smith said.

Also dead is 25-year-old Raeven Parks of Kansas City.

"An armed security guard at the business engaged the shooter outside of the establishment," police said in their initial statement early Monday morning. As of Monday afternoon, they had not provided additional details about what provoked the shooting.

KCPD confirmed there had been a drive-by shooting outside the same bar on Monday, Jan. 13. The male victim suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The owner of a nearby business in the same strip mall told KCUR the bar had been trouble since it opened a few months ago.

“It’s been nothing but bad news for us. Us small business owners. We’re out here cleaning up the parking lot, picking up after everyone comes on the weekends," said Jesse King, who owns Moving Kings. "It’s just terrible.”

King said KCPD detectives were in his office after the drive-by on Jan. 13.

"They were in to take the camera footage. I don't know what's going to happen with that," he said.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said investigators from the city's regulated industries division will be at the bar on Tuesday.

“City leadership will look at this club. We’ll consider whether it is a nuisance. If it meets those standards then we have remedies up to and including temporary revocation of the license.”

As reporters first gathered at the scene early Monday morning, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said it was a "tragic end to such a wonderful day in Kansas City," referring to the Chiefs' victory in the AFC Championship Game, which sends the team to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years.

"So, it is hard to stand here and talk about this kind of tragedy on one of the best days Kansas City has seen in a long time," she said. "But here we are."

Lucas said in a tweet early Monday that his thoughts were with the families and friends of those affected by the violence.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Copyright 2020 KCUR 89.3

C.J. has worked in Kansas City media long enough to be euphemistically called a "veteran" journalist. She arrived at KCUR in August 2014 with no radio experience whatsoever. She had spent many years as editor of Kansas City's alt-weekly, The Pitch, and had also made a temporary career detour into academic communications. At KCUR, she was inspired by, an grateful to, the great radio journalists who taught her how to tell stories with sound. C.J. is the author of a book, "No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas," published by the University Press of Kansas in January 2018. She has also won local awards for radio journalism, and during her time as editor of The Pitch, that paper won many local, regional and national awards. C.J. is an introvert. Her favorite Saturdays are those she spends by herself, sailing a beat-up Sunfish at Smithville Lake.
Sam grew up in Overland Park and was educated at the University of Kansas. After working in Philadelphia where he covered organized crime, politics and political corruption he moved on to TV news management jobs in Minneapolis and St. Louis. Sam came home in 2013 and covered health care and education at KCPT. He came to work at KCUR in 2014. Sam has a national news and documentary Emmy for an investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons and how it puts unescorted inmates on Grayhound and Trailways buses to move them to different prisons. Sam has one son and is pretty good in the kitchen.