Cortez Williams graduated from Paseo Academy on Sunday. Someone snuffed out his life just a couple of hours after the ceremony. Williams was found shot in the head inside a vehicle in the 4900 block of East 40th Terrace around 8:27 p.m.
Witnesses saw Williams driving southbound when another vehicle approached and opened fire on Williams, who crashed into a concrete barrier. He died Thursday. The 18-year-old's slaying is the 35th in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2011.
The Kansas City Star spoke with Williams' mother, who said she was preparing a celebratory dinner when her only son was killed.
"That was supposed to be his beginning," Sheila Williams told the paper.
"Not the ending. I don't understand what happened."
Sheila Williams' son was looking forward to going to college and getting a job.
Now she's looking for answers. If you can help answer them and find her son's killer, call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
The 35 homicides recorded in 2011 are the fewest in the last three years, although that will be of little comfort to those who have lost loved ones. The KCPD's clearance rate for 2011 is 49 percent (74 percent for the year if you count clearing homicides from previous years).
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Dear Mr. Kendall: Thanks for keeping the city posted on the homicide situation. As you say, we have good and bad news on the homicide stats. The good news is that we are lower in 2011 than we were in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The bad news is that we are higher than we were in 2007--and the current "homicide surge" in the city's black neighborhoods began in the spring of 2008 so it looks like this "homicide surge" is continuing. One stat that may be a warning of things to come: In the first four months of 2011 we had six homicides a month--as of May 27 we are up to ten for that month--with several people still in the hospital in critical condition. So we may have a bad summer homicide-wise in KCMO. You note the low clearance rates--this fact is big part of the problem. My home town of Washington, DC has a clearance rate of 92%--not coincidentally, DC in 2010 had the lowest homicide totals since 1963. Take care. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans
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