KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A father and aspiring rapper was gunned down in an apartment complex at 83rd and Hillcrest on Sunday. Police got a call about shots fired about 4:30 that same afternoon, but it was a family member who would find the victim in an apartment with an open door hours later.
Anthony Johnson, 23 was the victim shot and killed inside Stone Haven Apartments.
Bridget Johnson, Anthony’s mom, says the initial call came from a woman who lived in Johnson’s building; she heard three shots and saw people run from the scene.
“She insists she called 911, she showed me her cell phone and she told me they never came, so my son laid there for four hours,” she said.
Police say they did respond to a 911 call about 4:30 Sunday afternoon, hours before Johnson’s body was discovered, but according to a release they were looking for evidence of a shooting in the 8400 block of Hillcrest, closer to a neighboring apartment complex.
“Within a complex of maybe a hundred plus units, the officers were not provided enough information to know to look inside a specific apartment for a shooting victim when dispatched on a disturbance call in a different area,” Kansas City, M. Police Captain Tye Grant said.
“But why you didn’t call the cell phone back? You could at least call the cell phone back. I would never want someone to go through this; I saw my son laying there and I had his son in my arms and it’s so hurtful,” said Bridget.
Grant said police didn’t have a contact number for the 911 caller. Johnson leaves behind two sons, Julian and Brandon, both two years old.
He recently recorded a song called “Daddy’s Ballad” for them that begins:
“Now I’ve been thinking about my little man, get so weak I can’t even stand, wondering if you know I love you as much as I can,” and ends,
“just be better than me, love daddy.”
As for the motive in the killing, Johnson’s mother says she’s baffled. She says the only thing she can tell the killer might have taken was a video game. If you have any information you are asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS.