On January 30, 2015, D’Shawn L. Marchbanks Jr., a 23-year-old Black male from Kansas City, Missouri, was fatally shot in a highway drive-by incident in Grandview, Missouri. Marchbanks was driving a vehicle northbound on Interstate 49 near the Harry Truman Drive overpass when he was targeted. A Dodge Durango pulled alongside his car, and an occupant fired multiple rounds into the vehicle. Marchbanks was struck by the gunfire, and his passenger was injured by shattered glass.
Despite his injuries, Marchbanks was transported to a hospital where he remained on life support until he succumbed to his wounds shortly after the attack.
The shooting was reportedly the culmination of an ongoing disagreement originating in south Kansas City. At the time of the incident, Marchbanks was accompanied by SirTerry Stevenson, who told investigators that he returned fire at the attacking vehicle before their car came to a stop. Stevenson then fled the scene and hid two firearms in a nearby restaurant's restroom before being taken into custody for questioning. While no immediate arrests were made for the murder of Marchbanks himself, the investigation revealed that his associates believed a man named Marcellus Anderson, also known as 'Bullet,' was responsible for the killing. Anderson allegedly confessed to a witness that he had killed Marchbanks, sparking a cycle of retaliatory violence.
The death of Marchbanks led to a tragic chain of events involving his grieving associates. Believing that the individuals responsible for Marchbanks' death were located at a specific residence on Walrond Avenue in Kansas City, SirTerry Stevenson, along with Marchbanks' cousin Dominque Marchbanks and another man named Sulif Wilkins, allegedly planned a retaliatory attack. On May 31, 2015, in an attempt to avenge D’Shawn Marchbanks, shots were fired into the home, tragically striking and killing a 3-year-old boy named Amorian Hale while he was sleeping. Dominque Marchbanks, Stevenson, and Wilkins were subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder and other felonies in connection with the toddler's death, which prosecutors described as a misguided act of vengeance for the earlier highway slaying. Dominque Marchbanks was later convicted by a Jackson County jury for his role in the retaliatory homicide.
