KANSAS CITY, Mo. -Two months after a young Kansas City father was shot and killed in a car in broad daylight, his family requests that witnesses come forward.
The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department says Matthew Gatson Jr. was shot and killed on December 11, 2022.
Her boyfriend, Rain Spriggs, was driving the car that day and was also hit. She says FOX4 doctors said it would be too dangerous for them to remove the bullet, which is still lodged in her back.
“My son, I don’t want to cry, but my son has suffered,” said Gatson’s mother, Elisha Gatson.
Less than a month after her 20th birthday and two weeks before Christmas, the couple were returning from holiday errands.
Spriggs posted a video of them on social media shortly before they arrived at the area between 63rd Street and 71 Highway.
“I told him I felt weird, like something weird was going to happen,” Spriggs said.
Spriggs says a blue SUV that Gatson previously told her to “be careful” pulled up next to them. Spriggs believes Gatson knew someone was looking for him, but he doesn’t know who he was.
“As soon as I said his name, they started shooting more shots, and I was in fear for my life,” Spriggs said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
The family says Gatson was shot several times.
“I didn’t know I was hit at the time,” Spriggs said. “I just took us to the hospital. I was scared. I kept telling him, ‘Stay. Please do not leave me.’ And his last words were that he loved me.
Gatson died of his injuries that day at Research Medical Center.
“They told me if they took [the bullet out of my back] there would be a 50% chance that the left side of my body would be paralyzed,” Spriggs said.
Spriggs says he still has pain and limited range of motion in his left arm.
It was about 3:30pm on a Sunday at a busy intersection. The family believes that someone had to see something.
They say they don’t know who would want to harm the couple and ask for help.
“We’re just fighting for justice for some answers about what happened,” Elisha Gatson said. “We just want justice, for whoever did this to come forward.”
The KCPD say they have no information on the gunman, but they have recovered a suspicious vehicle. It is being processed for trials.
One of 168 homicides as of 2022 remains unsolved and under investigation.
KCPD says it has investigated shooting cases with 21 surviving victims so far in February 2023. During the same time frame in 2022, the number was nine.
