Nearly half of this year's 122 homicides in Kansas City remain unsolved. In many cases, people saw what happened or know who did it. The Kansas City Star says that this week, something new was tried to find those people: More than 150 law enforcement officers flooded four known dangerous areas of the city in search of more than 100 suspects, witnesses, and others linked to shootings and homicides.
The two-day effort started Tuesday morning and resulted in 92 arrests. Police also confiscated 20 guns, including an AK-47 with a drum magazine, and $100,000 in narcotics. The operation also drummed up 92 investigative leads, including new witnesses and former witnesses who gave new information. “Today every interview room we had was full,” said homicide Capt. John Mueller. “We've generated a lot of work.” Federal agents joined the officers, including six tactical teams, who served warrants and knocked on hundreds of doors seeking information about crimes and looking for people whose names had cropped up in homicide investigations. In part because of a record-setting August, the city is on pace this year to match or exceed its highest homicide total of the decade: 127 killings in 2005.