By Delores Jones and Sylvia Maria Gross
Kansas City, MO – A party was just letting out around 1 in the morning last Sunday at the Knights of Columbus hall at 83rd and Wornall, when shots rang out and people scattered. Nine people were injured, two critically, and two young men lay dead. DeMarco Harvey and Nathan Buie, Jr. both graduated from Hickman Mills High School and they were entering their junior years in college - Harvey at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Buie at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Now their friends and classmates are dealing with the shock; some of them were at the party on Saturday night.
On Thursday evening, UMKC students and Hickman Mills graduates gathered for a vigil outside the campus's African American History and Culture House. Buie attended UMKC on a track scholarship - his friends remembered his drive to succeed, his charisma and sense of humor.
Some UMKC students are turning to the Minority Student Affairs office to talk about their grief and maybe organize a response to the murders. Delores Jones spoke to Director Catherine Kironde and Assistant Director Keichanda Dees-Burnett.
On Saturday, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and other community leaders called on African American youth to come forward and report information on crimes.