Suspect in Kansas City funeral shooting arrested, charged after monthlong investigation

A man has been charged with allegedly opening fire at a Kansas City funeral service that was laying to rest a February homicide victim.

Anthony Medley, 39, was arrested earlier this week by the Kansas City Police Department’s Gang Enforcement Unit for his suspected involvement in the shooting at New Beginning Apostolic Church on Feb. 27.

A yellow Dodge Charger reportedly drove past the church while a funeral service for homicide victim Jerrell Moreland, 29, was underway. Moreland and Brittnee McMillon, 26, were found in a car earlier that month, dead from gunshot wounds.

Off-duty Kansas City police officers were attending the service when the suspect opened fire. Two people were shot, and one officer was injured by glass shrapnel.

Security camera footage and multiple eyewitness accounts indicated a black male suspect got out of the Charger and fired a gun at the church. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said someone in another vehicle returned fire.

The investigation, which lasted more than a month, identified Medley as the alleged shooter through license plate readers, cellphone data and surveillance footage.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but a man attending the funeral told police he believed someone was trying to kill him. Moreland’s family believes his killing could be related to a deadly nightclub shooting that killed two people just days after his death, according to Fox 4 News. Moreland was a relative of Eboni Silas, one of the victims in that shooting.

Medley is charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of armed criminal action, which could carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. He is being held at the Jackson County Detention Center without bond.