‘He truly showed us he loved us.’ KC man shot, killed a week ago known for contagious joy

Last year, on the beach of Longview Lake in Grandview, Wayne Steward scooped up piles of sand and dirt and hurled them toward his cousin Gabrielle Blewett.

She responded with handfuls of her own, sparking Steward’s infamous silly laugh. The two swam, played Marco Polo and ate good food, celebrating Gabrielle’s birthday.

“He had the funniest laugh ever, the ugliest laugh, actually,” Gabrielle Blewett said by phone Thursday.

One week ago, on Aug. 8, Steward, 23, was killed in a shooting in south Kansas City. Officers responded to a residence near Indian Creek where they found him unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Detectives are making progress in identifying a person of interest in the shooting, according to Jacob Becchina, a spokesperson with Kansas City Police. As of Friday, no one has been arrested or charged in connection with the shooting.

Steward was Kansas City’s 91st homicide victim in 2024, according to data maintained by The Star .

Since that day, Steward’s family has been trying to process the light that was taken from their lives, his mother Beverly Kitchen said.

“He was big on family,” Kitchen said. “Family was everything to him.”

Life lived with youthful joy

Steward was known to be childish, even into his early adult years. But it was a fun kind of childish, his cousins said, that made hard times less so.

His youthful joy permeated his life and spread to those around him. He was known to hug people even when they weren’t “the hugging type” and approached life with genuine optimism. No situation was too hard to handle, the way Steward saw it.

Steward worked a lot of odd jobs at restaurants and stores in Kansas City, according to his family. He graduated from Center High School and had a hard work ethic, his mother said.

There were few things Steward enjoyed more than a family-get-together around the barbecue and his auntie’s strawberry shortcake, Kitchen said. In his free time, he loved to play Call of Duty and other video games, always inviting others to play with him, she said.

His auntie Lakeisha Woods said he was a “mamma’s boy” who showed a lot of love and had a lot of potential.

Woods was close with Steward’s mother, and knew Steward from an infant into adulthood. He was his mother’s only child, but that didn’t stop him from claiming cousins as brothers and sisters.

“When I say ‘he loved us,’ I mean, he truly showed us he loved us,” Woods said. “We are so sorry this happened.”

His acts of love included going on “cousins dates” where he helped encourage and serve the women in his family. At a recent “cousin date,” he made multiple trips to hand-deliver Chipotle on his scooter.

His cousin Gadalyne Blewett remembers him being a gentleman from a young age. He walked with her to school each day and constantly gave her words of encouragement.

“I love him and I miss him and I’m sad he’s not here with us anymore,” Blewett said.

How to support Steward’s family

Steward’s family is planning a private memorial service and funeral arrangements are being made. A GoFundMe was created to help with funeral costs.

Kitchen said any kind of support is appreciated as the family continues to process their loss. She also welcomes words of encouragement and prayers.

“It’s abrupt. And today it just dawned on me — Wayne was shot a week ago today,” Kitchen told The Star Thursday.

“I know he’s just one person in a city of many, but to us he was everything.”