On the evening of September 19, 2017, 30-year-old Orlando Gentry was fatally shot outside an apartment complex near East 50th Street and Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. Witnesses said a Hispanic male was sitting outside the building as if lying in wait; as Gentry exited around 10:00 p.m., the assailant opened fire, struck him multiple times and fled. Gentry’s 12-year-old stepson called emergency services, but Gentry died of his wounds. He was a father of twelve and a lifelong Kansas City resident who had recently been praised for helping rescue a man trapped under a vehicle; he also faced pending charges connected to an earlier shooting at a church.

The investigation produced few leads until May 2018, when a separate robbery victim identified his robber as Luis A. Reyes and said Reyes had confessed to killing someone at 50th and Troost. Re-interviewed witnesses from the night of the shooting corroborated that Reyes was seen waiting outside the apartment. In January 2019 prosecutors charged 23-year-old Luis A. Reyes with first-degree murder and armed criminal action; a $250,000 cash bond was set and Reyes was already in custody on unrelated matters when the new charges were filed.

Did anyone in the neighborhood remember seeing a man waiting outside that building on the night of September 19, 2017?