On June 14, 2023, 18-year-old Jrya Hajai Rockie Cockrell was found unresponsive in a back bedroom of a home in the 7400 block of College Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, after reports of a shooting. Emergency personnel pronounced her dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head, and police opened a homicide investigation.

Officers detained 26-year-old Ronell K. Garner at the location; court records identify him as Cockrell’s boyfriend and cohabitant. Garner told investigators the shooting was accidental, saying he and Cockrell wrestled over a gun, that he pointed it at her and pulled the trigger believing it was unloaded. Witness statements and evidence collected by detectives described a more violent pattern: witnesses said Garner had previously pointed firearms at Cockrell, one alleged he threw her around a room a week earlier causing a head injury that required hospital treatment, and another said Garner confessed to killing her after the shooting.

Jackson County prosecutors charged Ronell K. Garner with second-degree murder and armed criminal action; he was held on a $250,000 cash bond. Does anyone have information about Cockrell, her movements that morning, or the relationship that could help investigators?