On the night of November 15, 2019, violence outside Cloud 9 Liquor Store at 7510 East 87th Street in Kansas City, Missouri, left 38-year-old Gerald D. Berry Jr dead. Berry, a Black man who was at the location with a relative, stepped in as an argument between that relative and 31-year-old Jhermeil R. Taylor escalated. Surveillance footage and witnesses show Berry raised his hand to intervene; a punch was thrown and Taylor drew a firearm, shooting Berry. Berry returned fire but suffered a fatal gunshot wound and was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Kansas City Police used store surveillance to identify a man in a yellow sweatshirt as the shooter. Authorities located and arrested Taylor; in December 2019 the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office charged him with second-degree murder and armed criminal action and he was held on $250,000 bond in the Jackson County Jail. In August 2022 Taylor pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, resolving the criminal case.

If anyone knew Gerald Berry Jr or witnessed what happened that night, please come forward with information.