In the late hours of November 12, 2018, the life of 38-year-old Damar West was tragically cut short in Kansas City, Missouri. Responding to reports of gunfire shortly before 11 p.m., police discovered West outside an apartment building in the area of 30th and Holmes Street. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation offered no immediate leads on a suspect, leaving a community searching for answers.
The case progressed as detectives meticulously pieced together the events leading to the shooting. A significant breakthrough came from surveillance footage which captured a distinctive SUV following Damar West’s vehicle just moments before he was killed. Investigators traced the SUV to a car rental company and identified the woman who had leased it. She informed police that a man named Marquand R. Simmons had been using the vehicle. Further investigation of cellphone records placed Simmons in the vicinity of the homicide before and after the shooting occurred.
In September 2019, nearly a year after the incident, authorities arrested Marquand R. Simmons, then 36, in connection with West's death. He was subsequently charged by the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office with second-degree murder, attempted robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. During interviews with police, Simmons admitted to driving the vehicle that followed West. He stated that he was with other individuals and that the intention of at least one of them was to commit a robbery. According to his account, when they reached the apartment building, two people, one armed with a rifle, got out of the SUV to meet West. Simmons told investigators he saw West run away, and then he heard the sound of gunshots.
