Loved ones are raising money for the family of a 21-year-old fatally shot last month in Kansas City with an AR-style weapon while sitting in a car.
Kansas City police found Jaden James dead in a vacant lot following a shooting around 4 p.m. Nov. 28 near the 4900 block of Heritage Avenue.
James graduated in 2021 from Truman High School, where he was on the football and track and field teams, Sara Ruch, a family friend, wrote on GoFundMe. He was a caring family member and friend whose future was just beginning, Ruch said.
“Friends often describe Jaden as the glue that held others together,” she continued.
The GoFundMe will help James’ mother pay for expenses related to his memorial service and to help his mother and siblings following his death.
“Nothing prepares you for the loss of a child, much less, planning their memorial and figuring out life without them,” Ruch wrote. “Your generosity would be greatly appreciated to support Jaden’s family.”
The shooting
When officers arrived at the scene that Tuesday, Tamon D. Daniel waved them down and said he had shot someone. Police found an AR-15-style gun and a cell phone next to him, according to an affidavit.
A wrecked Dodge SUV was found at the end of a cul-de-sac near a wooded area, and James was found dead in a nearby lot with multiple gunshot wounds.
Daniel, 31, was charged in November with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action for his alleged role in the shooting that killed James and injured another man. He surrendered to police the day of the shooting and was being held in county jail on a $150,000 bond.
The other man who was injured in the shooting told police he was with James in his car in a parking lot, when a man approached and fired twice through the windshield, according to court documents. James and the unnamed other victim ran from the vehicle.
The man told police he didn’t know why someone would shoot at them, according to the affidavit.
Daniel allegedly told police he shot both men because they pointed guns at him, and he thought they had threatened his sister. However, police found no firearms in the area, other than the one belonging to Daniels, according to the affidavit.
Police also interviewed Daniel’s sister, who said she had been kidnapped in Kansas City the previous day and believed she saw two men in a car who looked like the ones who had taken her against her will.
She provided names of the suspects to police, which didn’t match the victims in the shooting, the affidavit says.
Daniel later allegedly told detectives that he chased the victims down with his vehicle after they ran from him. After crashing the vehicle, he allegedly shot one of the men between four and eight times before he walked up a hill and turned himself in to authorities, according to the affidavit.
A gun-sniffing dog supplied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched the area. Police found shell casings that all matched the caliber of bullets loaded into the gun found near Daniel.
Bill Lukitsch contributed reporting.