On July 1, 2017, forty-six-year-old Darren L. Harris traveled from his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri, accompanied by two acquaintances, John W. Waldon and Andre L. Barnes. According to investigators, the trip was motivated by a financial dispute involving an alleged drug transaction. Harris had reportedly ventured to the city to collect a debt estimated between $10,000 and $20,000 from a local associate known as 'Dirty,' stemming from a previous deal involving PCP.
The situation turned violent that evening when Kansas City police officers were dispatched to the 1600 block of East 80th Street around 9:30 p.m. Upon arrival, they discovered a silver BMW parked on the street with its driver's side window shattered. Inside the vehicle, Harris was found unresponsive in the driver's seat, having sustained fatal gunshot wounds from. 45 caliber rounds. The car doors were locked, except for the passenger side, suggesting a sudden and close-range attack. Approximately thirty minutes later, the bodies of his companions, Waldon and Barnes, were discovered miles away near East 28th Terrace and Myrtle Avenue, both having been shot to death in a separate but connected incident.
Detectives linked the killings to a group of local men after a witness identified the man known as 'Dirty' as Tyree West. Forensic evidence further implicated West when his fingerprints were recovered from the interior of the silver BMW where Harris died. Following a lengthy investigation involving the FBI, Jackson County prosecutors announced charges in April 2020 against four suspects: Tyree West, Rashidi Crosdale, Terrence Harden, and Ravon Freeman. Authorities alleged that the murders were a coordinated effort to eliminate the men from Tulsa during the dispute.
The legal proceedings yielded mixed results for the accused. Tyree West and Rashidi Crosdale were indicted on three counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. At the time of the indictment, both men were already in federal custody on unrelated weapons and drug charges. Terrence Harden, who faced two counts of first-degree murder, eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted robbery and agreed to testify against his co-defendants. In May 2022, a jury found Ravon Freeman not guilty on all charges, marking the first acquittal in the case after his defense attorney argued he was not involved in the shootings. As of the acquittal, West and Crosdale remained in custody facing their respective murder charges.
