In the early morning hours of a Thursday in August 2020, the quiet of a grassy lot in Kansas City, Missouri, was broken by the discovery of a man's body. Police were called to the area near Independence Avenue and the Paseo around 1:15 a.m. for reports of a shooting. Upon their arrival, officers found 58-year-old Montez Blake, a male, who had been fatally shot.
The death of Mr. Blake was quickly classified as a homicide, adding to a growing number of killings in the city that year.
By the time of his death, Kansas City had recorded 123 homicides, a significant increase from the 90 that had occurred by the same time in the previous year. Investigators immediately began to piece together the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting.
In the initial stages of the investigation, police interviewed witnesses who were in the vicinity at the time of the incident. However, despite these early efforts, no immediate arrests were made in connection with the case. By the following afternoon, authorities had not publicly identified any suspects or a potential motive for the shooting. The investigation into the death of Montez Blake continued as another life was lost to violence in the city.
