Boy, 14, and woman, 36, identified as victims in shootings Wednesday in Kansas City

The victims in separate shootings that happened within about five minutes of each other Wednesday morning were a 14-year-old boy and a 36-year-old woman, Kansas City police said.

Derrick Thurman, a teenager, was found suffering from gunshot wounds at about 5:35 a.m. near a home in the 8300 block of Wayne Avenue in the Marlborough Heights-Marborough Pride neighborhood, a spokesperson with the Kansas City Police Department said.

Thurman was declared dead at the scene.

Just a few minutes later, at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday, someone called 911 to report a crash along westbound Interstate 670 in the downtown loop of Kansas City, police said.

As police headed to the crash scene, a second 911 caller said that someone was shot.

Officers found a woman, Crystal Rayner, inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds. She died soon after at the hospital.

The killings marked the 81st and 82nd homicides in Kansas City this year, according to data tracked by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. There were 69 killings by this time last year, which ended as the second-deadliest year on record with 171 killings.

In 2020, 182 lives were lost, the most homicides ever recorded. The next year was the third-deadliest year, with 157 killings in 2021.

Anyone with information about either homicide is asked to call detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information provided to the TIPS Hotline that leads to an arrest in the case.

Kansas City police are working with Partners for Peace in all of the city’s homicide investigations to monitor risks for retaliation and to provide social services to those affected.