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Witnesses Asked To Speak Up In Homicides

2,840 views · Published 7 August 2008 · 2:45 · Indexed 15 October 2026

Channel: KMBC 9 · 2008 · News & Politics

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Four men were killed in 48 hours in the Kansas City area over the weekend.

Police identified the four victims, who were killed in separate incidents: Vincent McCollum, 32; Darnell Cooper, 44; Derrick Blount, 28; and Lafayette Morris, 17.

McCollum, Cooper and Blount were killed in Kansas City, Mo.; Morris was slain in Kansas City, Kan.

KMBC's Martin Augustine reported that a common thread in the four cases is that no one is talking to police.

Police said it's difficult to solve the homicides without someone coming forward with information.

Residents said they can't talk to police without fearing retaliation in the neighborhood.

Local pastors said that silence is the same as violence. That theme is echoed on a T-shirt worn by the Rev. Eric Williams.

"We tell people, 'Speak up. Stand up,'" Williams said.

Williams said speaking up is the only way to beat back violence.

"The biggest challenge is just getting people to tell us what they saw," one police officer told KMBC.

Williams said the violence is conquering truth and love.

"If it's my house that's burglarized and you know who did it, and you won't tell, do you really love me? You're contributing to the violence," Williams said.

Earlier this year, a parishioner of Williams' was killed at 34th Street and College Avenue, and nobody was coming forward.

In the days after Brandon Burtin was killed, his family gathered at the corner, pleading for witnesses to step up.

Williams said getting voices to rise above the silence is complicated, requiring truth, love and patience.

"The reality is that it's a tough problem that's been through the ages of time. And so you have to keep pushing, one rock at a time. Never giving up hope," Williams said.

The Silence is Violence message began two years ago, when University of Missouri-Kansas City students Nathan Buie and Demarco Harvey were shot and killed after a party. That case remains unsolved.

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