Brookside business owners speak on crime escalation following deadly shooting

Brookside business owners like Jerri Brandon, owner of Brookside Party Warehouse, heard about the deadly shooting of Shaun Brady , chef and co-owner of Brady & Fox, Wednesday night.

“Well, it took the breath out of me, I said, ‘Where? You mean, right down the street?’” Brandon said.

Brady, a beloved Irish chef in the Kansas City community, was killed outside his Brookside restaurant around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday after confronting multiple people standing around a vehicle, according to police.

The owner of Lauren Alexandra and Georgie, Pamela DiCapo, heard the news while dining in Brookside.

Dale Messing/KSHB

“We’re all very, very close and it’s really sad to see this happen to our neighborhood," DiCapo said.

Brandon says crime in the area has escalated over the last two years.

“Ten years ago, we kinda wanted to keep it on the (down low), people don’t want to think it’s not safe here," Brandon said. "It is safe here, but crime happens and it’s getting worse.”

Executive director of Southtown Council Sean Ackerson has known Brady as a business owner for years. Brady was a member of the group.

“Sean was one of the business owners that you loved to work with because he was just so personable, he treated everybody that he knew like you were best friends," Ackerson said.

Ackerson said Brady's death is heartbreaking and concerning for the larger Kansas City business community.

“If this had happened at 2 o’clock in the morning, it would be less concerning, tragic, but this happened at 5 o’clock in the evening," he said.

"This is rush hour traffic, this is peak business for a restaurant, this is an owner that shouldn’t have to deal with issues like this at all, much less 5 o’clock in the afternoon," he continued.

While conversations about crime in the area have been ongoing for years, Brookside business owners say conversations need to become louder so a solution can be found.

Dale Messing/KSHB

“It’s time to really start making noise about the crime," Brandon said.

Two juveniles were arrested in connection to the death of Brady within an hour of the shooting, according to the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department .

“I’d love to tell you that it’s comforting, it’s not," Ackerson said. "It’s not going to bring Shaun back, it’s not going to resolve the fear in the community that we arrested two because we’re worried that where there are two, there’s four, there’s six, there’s eight.”

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