On the night of January 27, 2017, violence erupted outside Paul’s Liquor and Grocery in the 5500 block of The Paseo in Kansas City, Missouri. A 23-year-old male named Warren Jackson III was sitting in the back seat of a vehicle parked at the location along with several other individuals. Shortly before 10:00 p.m., two men exited the convenience store and immediately opened fire on the car.
The sudden ambush triggered a chaotic shootout, with reports indicating that some occupants of the vehicle returned fire before fleeing the scene. When law enforcement officers arrived, they discovered Jackson alone in the back seat, suffering from critical gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries hours later, passing away early the following morning.
Detectives immediately launched an investigation, turning to surveillance footage from the liquor store to identify the perpetrators. The video captured two men entering the store around 9:20 p.m. and later exiting to commence the attack. Investigators released images from the footage to the public and identified the suspects' vehicle as a mid-2000s gray Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Witnesses eventually came forward, identifying the shooters as Markus Hayes and Wardell Williams. Authorities learned that the violence may have stemmed from a conflict between Jackson and the suspects that had occurred a year prior involving an allegedly stolen phone.
Legal proceedings followed the identification of the suspects. Wardell Williams, 26, was charged in February 2017 with second-degree murder and multiple other felonies; however, he ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony count of unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Markus Hayes, 23, faced charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. In May 2018, Hayes pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for his role in the killing. On July 13, 2018, a Jackson County judge sentenced Hayes to fifteen years in prison, bringing a conclusion to the case surrounding the fatal shooting on The Paseo.
