Overnight standoff continues after five linked shootings on Kansas City highways

Four motorists were wounded and a fifth person killed in a rapid series of connected attacks on I-70 and I-670, leading police to surround a home in Independence where the suspect remains barricaded.

Overnight standoff continues after five linked shootings on Kansas City highways

A barricaded suspect situation stretched into the early morning hours Wednesday after a string of gun attacks on Kansas City-area expressways left one person dead and four others wounded. The standoff was still active as of 6 a.m., according to KCTV5.

The violence erupted between roughly 6 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, when authorities began fielding emergency calls about drivers being struck by bullets. In each instance, victims reported traveling eastbound when projectiles penetrated their automobiles. One motorist had just crossed into Missouri from Kansas.

The wounded were ferried to hospitals. A juvenile is in stable condition, two grown patients are anticipated to make full recoveries, and a third adult faces grave injuries that could turn fatal.

Investigators mapped the four highway incidents as occurring in quick succession, moving from west to east across the city. They have also connected these shootings to a separate lethal gun attack and traffic collision at Truman Road and Bennington that happened around the same half-hour.

Through their work, detectives identified a single individual as the focus of all five cases and traced that person to a dwelling in Independence. The resulting confrontation produced an overnight siege.

At approximately 12:45 a.m., flames broke out inside the house where the standoff was taking place. Firefighters arrived and worked to extinguish the blaze while the situation remained unresolved.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)