A 16-year-old Wyandotte High School junior, Way La Baw, was fatally shot and died after being taken by private vehicle to Saint Luke’s Hospital near the Country Club Plaza on the afternoon of February 21, 2022. He arrived at the hospital around 1:00 p.m. and was pronounced dead shortly after admission; hospital and investigative assessments determined his injuries were gunshot wounds and the Kansas City Police Department opened a homicide investigation.

Detectives developed leads from the driver who brought Way to the hospital; that person directed investigators to the location where the teen had been found and picked up earlier that day. Police examined the area that evening as they worked to establish the sequence of events and identify persons of interest, and no arrests were reported in the initial account.

Way was the eldest son of a family that fled Myanmar and lived a decade in a Thai refugee camp before immigrating to the United States in 2010. He had recently begun a part-time job at a local Walmart and his family and community organized fundraising to help with funeral costs. If anyone knew Way or has information about what happened that afternoon, please come forward.