In the pre-dawn hours of June 29, 2020, in Kansas City, Missouri, four-year-old LeGend Taliferro was asleep in a first-floor apartment at the Citadel complex when gunshots were fired from behind a privacy fence through the apartment’s sliding glass doors. LeGend was struck and later died at a local hospital after being rushed there by a family member. Detectives treated the shooting as a targeted attack on that apartment rather than a random act.

Investigators focused on a suspect named Ryson B. Ellis after witness statements and anonymous tips connected him to the scene. The motive appeared linked to a domestic dispute: a woman in the apartment had a child with Ellis and had reportedly been assaulted by him, leading to confrontations with her brothers, one of whom was LeGend’s father. A witness later said she drove Ellis to the complex the night of the shooting and heard gunfire after he left the vehicle.

A few weeks after the killing Ellis was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma and charged in connection with the shooting. The case drew national attention and prompted a federal anti-crime initiative called Operation LeGend. If anyone knew LeGend, the apartment complex, or saw activity near the Citadel on June 29, what information can be shared with investigators?