On a cold November evening in Kansas City, Missouri, a night that had begun with the celebration of a family wedding ended in a hail of gunfire, leaving a young woman dead and three others wounded. Maryanna Pennington, a 25-year-old mother of three, was killed on November 12, 2016, when a man opened fire on the disabled vehicle she and her friends were in.
The group of four women, including Pennington's sister, were stranded near 21st and Cleveland after their car broke down due to a broken axle. As they waited for assistance, their calls for help were tragically answered with violence.
The fatal shooting was not a random act of violence but rather stemmed from an earlier dispute. A witness informed police that Pennington had been involved in an altercation with the girlfriend of the shooter just hours before the deadly encounter. This 'girl fight' reportedly escalated, leading the girlfriend to ask her boyfriend to confront Pennington. The man who would be identified as the shooter was Deandre Jackson of Raytown, Missouri. In a cruel twist of fate, Jackson was the twin brother of the deceased father of Pennington's youngest child.
Deandre Jackson approached the stranded vehicle and unleashed a barrage of bullets, firing more than 30 shots from two different weapons, including a handgun and an AK-47 style rifle. The car, with the four helpless women inside, was riddled with bullets, the ignition still on. When the shooting stopped, Maryanna Pennington was dead, having sustained ten gunshot wounds, and the other three women were critically injured. One of Pennington's sisters was paralyzed as a result of the shooting. The scene was described as looking like a war zone, with shell casings scattered in a full circle around the car.
In the aftermath of the brutal shooting, Deandre Jackson was arrested and faced a litany of charges. In June 2019, Jackson pleaded guilty to ten felony counts, including second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and five counts of armed criminal action. During the emotional sentencing hearing, the prosecutor displayed a bag containing the 34 shell casings recovered from the scene, calling the event a 'war that unfolded on our streets.' Jackson offered an apology to the victim's family, stating he didn't mean for it to happen. In August 2019, a judge sentenced Deandre Jackson to 26 years in prison for the murder of Maryanna Pennington and the grievous injuries inflicted on her friends.
