‘I refuse to have fear’: As Westport business owners process shooting, city leaders offer public safety plan

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Westport business owners are still processing a mass shooting Wednesday with 5 people shot. Just a day later, Kansas City leaders announced a pre-scheduled public safety plan.

Four adult men and one teenage male were shot just after 8 p.m. Wednesday in the 300 block of Westport Road, just east of Broadway Boulevard.

The five victims were reported in stable condition Thursday morning.

There’s still no word on what led to the incident, but the impact spans beyond the victims.

Gilded Chaos is a vintage store next door to POP! Vintage Furniture and Accessories, whose window was shattered Wednesday night.

Lindsey Kupper owns Gilded Chaos and says it’s important to look at the violence with a broad lens.

“It’s horrible,” Kupper said. “It’s not surprising to me because the crime in Kansas City has gotten so incredibly out of control. This is not a Westport thing. This is a Kansas City thing.”

Kupper says just weeks prior, her business was robbed.

“From things that have happened to me and my business, the issue is there’s just not enough police to go around or to help,” Kupper said. “It was almost impossible to get a police report even just filed because there’s not enough police to go around.”

She and other business owners are fed up with the violence and are looking to city leaders for solutions.

“I would like to know what the mayor is going to do,” Kupper said. “What kind of change is he going to make so that my other friends that own small businesses aren’t sleeping in their shops because they’re scared that their windows are going to get broken because they can’t afford to fix them.”

Dale Messing/KSHB 41

The mayor’s answer came during a Thursday afternoon press conference: KC United for Public Safety.

It’s a coalition of community organizations, local businesses, elected officials, law enforcement, and others to create a plan that addresses the root causes and solutions of violence in Kansas City.

The effort has taken place over the course of several months and has included input from 250 community organizations. Many of those met to help structure the plan at a gun violence symposium in April.

“We’ve gone to some of our neighboring cities, our cities like Omaha, Chicago, Baltimore that are having success in reducing violence in their cities, and you will see that within that plan as well,” said Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw.

The 42-page report has three phases: intervention, prevention and sustainability, and addressing root causes. Its goals include reducing gun violence by 50 percent in five years, returning to fewer than 100 homicides annually, and making a measurable economic impact, including jobs and careers, income, housing and homeownership rate, and business growth.

The speakers included Mayor Quinton Lucas, Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw, Chief Stacey Graves of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, Klassie Alcine, CEO of KC Common Good, and Joe Reardon, president & CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

There was someone not on that list who stood proudly amongst that group of leaders: Ossco Bolton.

Ossco Bolton, founder and director of P.O.S.S.E.

Bolton knows all about the root causes of violence.

“Myself being involved with gangs when they first came in, a lot of those guys tricked us. I was only 15, 16 years old looking for something to be a part of,” Bolton said.

That’s why he founded Peers Organized to Support Student Excellence, or P.O.S.S.E., to offer young people an alternative to gangs. Bolton sees the public safety plan as an authentic opportunity for change.

“It’s people at a level that a lot of times, we don’t get a voice with,” Bolton said. “How many times do you get a chance to talk with the mayor or city council and actually have a real conversation?”

His presence at Thursday’s conference represents his attempt to rewrite history.

“Lived experience has always been left out of a lot of the tables,” Bolton said. “And now that those with lived experience are at the table, they can work alongside as educators, they can work alongside the chief and the KCPD and other organizations and agencies.”

Kupper wants Wednesday’s incident to be a reminder not to let fear overshadow any efforts to look for solutions.

Dale Messing/KSHB 41

“I refuse to have fear,” Kupper said. “I think that crime like this is happening all over the city, and this isn’t necessarily a Westport thing, and so something like this is not enough for me to not continue my business.”

KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.

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