On a summer evening in July 2014, a domestic dispute in Atchison, Kansas, tragically escalated, leading to the death of 5-year-old Cadence Harris, a Caucasian female. The young girl was fatally shot in the head by her mother's boyfriend, Marcas McGowan, following a high-speed police chase that ended in Leavenworth, Kansas.
The series of events began when Cadence's mother ran to a neighbor's house to call 911, reporting that McGowan had threatened her at gunpoint.
In the ensuing chaos, McGowan forced Cadence into his vehicle and fled the scene. An Atchison police officer quickly began a pursuit, with lights and sirens activated. The chase crossed state lines into Missouri and then back into Kansas, reaching speeds of 90 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone before McGowan crashed his SUV through a barrier on an unfinished road in Leavenworth.
During the chase, law enforcement officers made attempts to de-escalate the situation. McGowan’s mother and grandmother spoke with him by phone, pleading with him to release the child. At one point, McGowan demanded to exchange Cadence for her mother on a bridge, a demand the police refused. After crashing the vehicle, McGowan exited and opened fire on Leavenworth police officers, who returned fire and wounded him.
When officers reached the vehicle, they found Cadence in the front passenger seat with a gunshot wound to her head; she was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy later confirmed that she had been shot in the back of the head, and evidence indicated the bullet was fired from inside the car. In May 2016, Marcas McGowan pleaded guilty to kidnapping resulting in death and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He admitted to kidnapping Cadence and fatally shooting her as police closed in.
