On a Saturday afternoon, March 7, 2015, the life of 21-year-old Len Mitchell Jr., a Black male, was tragically cut short in Kansas City, Kansas. He and his father, Len Mitchell Sr., were at a friend's home in the 1800 block of Rowland Avenue when gunfire erupted around 3 p.m. The shooting left the younger Mitchell dead at the scene and his father wounded and in need of hospitalization. Family members, shocked by the sudden violence, remembered Len Jr.
as a quiet and thoughtful young man who was always seeking advice on how to better himself. A graduate of Schlagle High School, he had a passion for sports and had endured the loss of his mother at a young age.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, family members were notified by police that a suspect had been taken into custody. Wyandotte County prosecutors later formally charged Antonio Alexander McGee, a 24-year-old from Kansas City, with first-degree murder in the death of Len Mitchell Jr. and attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of his father. McGee was subsequently held in the Wyandotte County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a partial sense of closure to the tragic event. In April 2016, Antonio Alexander McGee pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of second-degree murder for his role in the death of Len Mitchell Jr. He also pleaded no contest to aggravated battery for the wounding of Len Mitchell Sr. His sentencing was scheduled for the following month.
