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A chef's killing underscores Kansas City's property crime problem

As the Kansas City Irish Fest begins today, the Irish community is in mourning after the killing of chef and festival organizer Shaun Brady during a possible car burglary. Outgoing Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says she's seeing a trend of rising property crimes that end in tragedy.

“My heart’s really broken. I vacillate from anger and outrage to all those personal feelings of why, why, why,” Baker said. “Why was this man’s life taken? What could have been done? What can be done still?"

Baker spoke with Up To Date's Steve Kraske about her office's efforts to address property crimes — and what's standing in the way of more prosecutions.

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This episode of Kansas City Today is hosted by Frank Morris. It is produced by David McKeel and KCUR Studios. It's edited by Madeline Fox, Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
David McKeel is a producer for KCUR Studios. Email him at David.McKeel@kcur.org
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