In the summer of 2021, a tragedy unfolded in Kansas City, Missouri, claiming the life of Evonne Antoinette Smalls Cruz. The 43-year-old woman was fatally shot on the evening of Sunday, June 27, 2021, in what police have described as an apparent murder-suicide.
Officers were initially called to the area of East 9th Street and Prospect Avenue around 9:30 p.m. following reports of a shooting. There, they discovered Cruz inside a vehicle that had crashed.
She was suffering from gunshot wounds and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she unfortunately succumbed to her injuries.
The investigation into her death quickly led police to a nearby residence in the 2600 block of East 9th Street. It is believed that Cruz was shot near this home and had attempted to drive away before crashing her vehicle a short distance from the scene.
At the same residence, authorities found 54-year-old Antonio Arbelo, who was deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Kansas City Police Department identified Arbelo as the suspect in Cruz's death, concluding that he had shot her before taking his own life. The case was investigated as a murder-suicide, and at the time, her death marked the 75th homicide in Kansas City for that year.
