A late-night shooting in Kansas City ended in tragedy on December 3, 2025. Just before 1:30 a.m., officers responding to a call for an unresponsive person found 27-year-old Jerome Anthony Hawkins Jr. lying on the sidewalk near East 25th Street and Hardesty Avenue with apparent gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Known to family and friends as Bullet, Hawkins was born in 1998. His biography notes he was an honors student at Blue Springs South High School, earned a manufacturing certification recently, attended Missouri Western State University where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was active at First Regular Baptist Church. His father died when Hawkins was a toddler.

Police say the case remains active with no suspects in custody; detectives canvassed for witnesses and surveillance and asked anyone with information to contact the homicide unit or the TIPS Hotline. Did anyone in the neighborhood see or hear anything that night or have footage from nearby cameras?