KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officers and ATF agents spent Thursday searching an area near I-435 and Grandview Road looking for evidence in the recent highway shootings in the greater Kansas City area.
During their search officers collected what appeared to be a shell casing on the Grandview Road bridge above I-435.
“ATF has about 20 people assigned to this investigation right now,” John Ham, public information officer with the ATF, said. “We have made absolutely all of our resources available to the police department.”
With the ATF’s help, they’re bringing unique technology and resources to the investigation, including explosive detection dogs.
“‘They do what dogs do, they sniff, but they are sniffing for something very specific they are sniffing for one of those 19,000 compounds that they have been trained to sniff for,” Ham said.
The compounds are those found in shell casings and firearms. Any evidence found is turned over to the Kansas City Crime Lab.
“The KC Crime lab is very, very high performing in the world of crime labs,” Ham said. “They have a fantastic firearms and tool marks section that can more than handle this situation.”
New evidence is compared to evidence collected at crime scenes, like bullets lodged in vehicles, but not all have come from cars. Leawood police said residents who live in a home located on 111th Terrace returned home from vacation on March 28 and noticed a bullet hole in their house. The home is not too far from a shooting that happened at I-435 and State Line. Investigators collected the bullets to compare to others.
“This case is being investigated by some of the best investigators in the country, and it will get resolved,” Ham said.
Police are offering a $7,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of person or persons responsible.
