Loop Road remains a place of controversy

Having fun at a park should not cause grief, but the Loop Road in Swope Park has caused plenty.

Twenty-nine-year-old Freddie L. Heard died at the Loop on April 9. According to the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, Heard was a bystander to an act of violence. But the incident has set off, once again, a major debate about the area's safety and behavior of the crowds there.

On Sunday, April 9, the usually festive atmosphere at the park turned dark. Heard had gone to the Loop with a friend. As they were leaving, a fight started between a man and woman. The commotion caused the traffic to stall. Heard jumped out of a 1995 Cadillac to watch the fight. A few minutes later, shots were fired and Heard hit the ground, bleeding.

He was pronounced dead at the scene (63rd and Lewis Road) -- another black-on-black crime statistic, the result of a handgun. Heard's death was the sort of senseless and random violence that has been associated with the large crowds that gather at the Loop every spring and summer.

It was not an extremely warm day. The temperature was in the mid-60s, not exactly inviting weather for outside activities. But people came to the Loop. At the time of the shooting, police were present. However, normal police patrol of the area was not to begin until the following week.

"The crowds Sunday were unusually large for this time of year. Usually, the crowds do not swell to several thousand until May. That's why police officers were not assigned to the park on Sunday," said Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) Maj. Darryl Forte in a Star article about the Heard shooting.

Police initially had few leads in the shooting death, though it took place in front of hundreds of people. Many potential witnesses immediately left the park after hearing gunfire. The biggest challenge the police faced was getting witnesses to talk on the record. In the black community there is a code of silence, a long tradition stemming from mistrust that prevents police from solving many crimes quickly.

Detectives who arrived on the scene after the shooting wrote down the license numbers of cars that remained in the park after the shooting. They attempted to contact and interview witnesses but needed the assistance of city Councilman Al Brooks, also a consultant for the Move Up organization (a merger between the Ad-Hoc Group Against Crime and Project Neighborhood).

Brooks' intervention helped lead to the arrest of 19-year-old Jamaal Robinson. Brooks was able to obtain information needed for the investigation because of his regular one-minute broadcasts on KPRS 103.3 FM. His messages of advocacy ask listeners for tips to help solve certain crimes in the community. Brooks says a reward was eventually given for the information in the Heard crime.

According to police statements, Robinson and his ex-girlfriend had a fight at the Loop. Robinson pulled out a gun and shot at the ex-girlfriend as she was walking away. The stray bullet struck Heard in his left side, piercing his heart and lungs.

The shooting has not altered patrol plans for the summer, says Sgt. Mark Heimer, who is part of the tactical response team that patrols the park on Sunday. But concerns about the Loop remain. Hundreds of young adults and teenagers congregate there on Sunday afternoons to hang out and cruise. It is a ritualistic celebration where members of a mostly African-American crowd display the latest in urban fashion, listen to rap music, show off their cars, and socialize.

There have been crackdowns on underage drinking and marijuana use at the Loop, and violent activity has declined. But a neighborhood group near Swope Park doesn't hold that opinion; residents have a different version of Loop activity. The Swope Ridge neighborhood is about a mile from the Loop and is bounded by 63rd Street and Gregory on the north and south and I-435 and Swope Parkway on the east and west.

Several members of the Swope Ridge Neighborhood Association have complained bitterly about the crowds for several years. Their complaints have been directed at 5th District city councilmembers Kelvin Simmons and Becky Nace. Residents say they feel like prisoners in their own homes on Sundays. They complain that because of the unruly crowds of young adults, they can't have company, hold barbecues, or allow their children to play in the yard. The residents perceive the crowd to be dangerous and are fearful of the crowd's actions. Several residents claim they have been assaulted or threatened. They say their property has been destroyed and people have urinated and littered on their lawns. Drag racing and loud music is common, says one resident, so much so that the vibrations from the noise shattered her china. Traffic congestion is another complaint. Loop patrons supposedly use 67th Street as a Loop entrance and exit.

The 3/4-mile-long Loop road opened in 1997 at a cost of $480,000. The Loop -- so named by city officials -- replaced a section of Swope Park formerly known as the Circle, which was demolished when the zoo expanded in the mid-'90s. The area has traditionally been an African-American gathering place on Sunday afternoons ever since Kansas City's version of Jim Crow laws were wiped out in the mid-'60s. Segregation laws had previously limited African-Americans' access to only certain sections of Swope Park.