On a summer day in Kansas City, Missouri, 17-year-old Johan Sarmiento-Peralta went with his girlfriend and a family member to watch a soccer match in the Lykins neighborhood. What was supposed to be a leisurely outing turned into a fatal encounter. While they were parked near East 10th Street and Van Brunt Boulevard on August 4, 2022, a group of four men in a black pickup truck approached them.
The men took issue with a shirt Sarmiento-Peralta was wearing, which displayed the number '8,' and questioned if he was a member of the rival 18th Street gang. Despite his denial of any gang affiliation, the men ordered him to remove his shirt, a demand he refused.
The initial group of men retreated to their truck, made some phone calls, and left the scene. However, the situation escalated dramatically about ten minutes later when approximately a dozen men returned in three separate vehicles. Among them were 18-year-olds Alexis Menjivar and Kennedy Lopez-Maderos, who allegedly confronted Sarmiento-Peralta again as he sat in the driver's seat of his vehicle. When he once more refused to take off his shirt, a physical altercation ensued, during which Lopez-Maderos allegedly punched him. Witnesses reported that Menjivar then handed a black handgun to Lopez-Maderos, who proceeded to shoot Sarmiento-Peralta once in the head. The group of men then fled the area. Johan Sarmiento-Peralta was rushed to the hospital, where he died from his injuries two days later.
The investigation that followed led authorities to identify Menjivar and Lopez-Maderos as the primary suspects, with law enforcement determining their affiliation with the MS-13 gang. Surveillance footage from a city camera corroborated witness accounts, showing a black pickup matching the suspect vehicle's description near a known MS-13 gang house. Both men were subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. In December of the following year, Alexis Menjivar pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the shooting. Kennedy Lopez-Maderos, who was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, was scheduled to stand trial in March 2024.
