A day after Kansas City lost two more of its children, family and community members are struggling to comprehend what happened.
Two young boys died after shots were fired into a home near 58th and College early Saturday morning. They were 8 and 9 years old. The other victim, a 16 year-old-girl, is expected to recover.
Rosilyn Temple is the executive director of KC Mothers In Charge. She says she arrived at the scene around 2:30 a.m. She was told shots were fired into the house, striking the three victims.
Temple gets called to homicide scenes frequently, but she says Saturday morning's scene was especially difficult.
"I’m called to every homicide scene ... and that yesterday, that took my breath," Temple says. "These children didn't have a chance."
She says too many children have been lost to gun violence in recent years, and she believes fixing the problem starts at home.
"I don't think these are random shootings. I just don't think anyone is riding through the neighborhood and says, 'I'm going to shoot this house up,'" she says.
She says parents and neighbors need to take a close look at who they let into their homes and who they surround themselves with. Home, she says, should be a safe place for children. Her own son was killed at home when he was 26.
"We have failed these children because we have seen this happen before and it's still happening and we still haven't come together and addressed the problems," she says.
She says its particularly important now to keep this conversation going — both in our homes and our communities.
"We can engage our community and love on each other. And not turn your head on this in a week's time and say it's over let's go back to normal," she says.
Temple says in the next few days she'll be reaching out to the family of the victims, but for now she knows they need space to process what happened.
"I cry for them babies, I cry for their father and their mother. The whole community should be in a cry now, and say we’re not going to fail any more of our children."
As of Sunday afternoon, Kansas City Police hadn't identified any suspects.
Lisa Rodriguez is a reporter at KCUR. Connect with her on Twitter @larodrig.
