In the winter of 2021, the life of 35-year-old Cicely Shirley was tragically cut short in a burst of gunfire. On the night of Friday, December 3rd, Kansas City police were called to the 7900 block of East 88th Place in the Fairwood and Robandee neighborhood, where they discovered two victims of a shooting. Cicely was found unresponsive, and despite the efforts of officers to perform life-saving measures, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
A second victim, an adult male, was also shot but was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Cicely, a mother of six children whose ages ranged from two to eighteen, was described by her family as a 'beautiful soul'. In the wake of her death, her family expressed their belief that the shooting was an act of domestic violence. They organized a fundraiser to cover funeral and medical expenses, as well as to provide for her children who were left without their mother just before the holidays. It was also mentioned that her 18-year-old son may have been injured during the incident.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, law enforcement officials announced that they had identified a person of interest and were actively working to bring that individual into custody. However, no public announcements of an arrest have been made in connection with Cicely Shirley's death. The Kansas City Police Department encouraged anyone with information to come forward, offering a substantial reward for details that could lead to an arrest in the case. Her death marked the 144th homicide in Kansas City that year, a stark statistic in a week that saw a surge of violence across the metropolitan area.
