St. Joseph family speaks out after Bartlett Park shooting
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- One St. Joseph family said last week’s shooting near Bartlett Park has changed the way they feel about their own neighborhood.
William Stone is a father of four who lives just a block and a half from the Bartlett Center. He said he heard the gunfire the night of the shooting — and immediately worried about his children.
“I got up. I have a firearm myself, so I got up and armed myself, and made sure that my kids were ok,” he said.
According to a news release from the St. Joseph Police Department, officers learned an underage party had taken place in the area and that multiple shots had been fired.
Police said everyone involved had already left by the time officers arrived.
One juvenile female reported minor injuries, but police say she did not need medical treatment.
The shooting remains under investigation, and police are not releasing any additional information at this time.
For Stone, though, the impact goes beyond the investigation. He said his family no longer feels the same sense of safety they once had in their own neighborhood.
“The thing is that it's a park, right? So, growing up as a kid here in St. Joe, I used to go to that park all the time. I didn’t even have to have parental supervision. It was just “Hey, we are going to the park,” he added.
Stone’s wife and the mother of their children, Jayna Stone, declined an on-camera interview. But she sent KQ2 a statement describing what she heard that night.
“I knew it was CLOSE. I thought it was somewhere between 30th and 32nd (streets) on Monterey. It was at least 15-17 shots from a handgun. It sounded like two different guns. There was no screaming or yelling or anything,” she said in a statement.
The next day, Stone said he checked in with neighbors who also have children, making sure they were okay.
He said the shooting has shaken a community he once considered a safe place to raise his family.
“We all are in aggrievement that it's just a shame that our little community right next to Bartlett Park, which used to be an area that everybody thought was like a nice area, has to be shaken like that,” Stone said.
Now, Stone and his family are hoping the incident serves as a reminder to the community that families shouldn’t have to think twice before taking their kids to their neighborhood park.
