At about 11:30 p.m. on Monday, December 3, a man shot and wounded a couple near Seventh Street and Osage Avenue in KCK. The wounded couple rushed to KU Hospital. Hoping to finish the job, the shooter followed and killed the man as he tried to enter the hospital. The shooter then turned the gun on himself and ended the drama.
The victim was Dominic Garcia, 28, a Kansas City, Kansas, native and graduate of J. C. Harmon High. According to his obituary, “Dominic was a hardworking and loving husband, father, and son. Anyone who met him, immediately loved him.”
As to who shot and killed Garcia and wounded the women with him, six days have passed since the shooting, and the media are still mum. They may not know, but the fact that this information has not yet been shared makes one suspicious.
The absence of this knowledge did not prevent Congresswoman-elect Sharice Davids from politicizing the incident. “We don’t know all the facts about what happened in this case yet, but we do know that gun violence and domestic violence are far too common and we need to do more to stop them,” said Davids who, the Kansas City Star reports, “voiced support for new gun control measures on the campaign trail.”
In the future, it would be prudent for our elected officials to avoid injecting politics into a tragic event without knowing the motive, the name, or even the nationality of the shooter. It would be useful for the media to start asking those questions.