KC Unsolved: Mistaken identity or gang rivalry? KCK police trying to unravel unsolved murder

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - When a car rolled up next to Angel Chavira at a stop sign in Kansas City, Kansas, two years ago, the driver and enger were intent on killing. Both of them fired. The enger fired over the roof.

Crime scene photos shared by police show the area littered with shell casings. Angel tried to drive off but crashed into the over. It only took one gunshot to kill him.

“He was shot once in the head,” said Det. James Gunzenha.

It happened on June 21, 2022, at 6:38 p.m. Angel had just exited northbound 18th Street Expressway onto Ruby Avenue.

Witnesses to the shooting gave police a description of the shooter’s car. It was a grey or silver Nissan Altima. No one was able to get a license plate number.

Angel was 31 years old.

In the two years since, detectives have pieced together enough to have two possible theories about the motive for the shooting, but they don’t have enough evidence to be certain about either.

What they are certain of is that Angel was doing nothing wrong. He had just come from an auto parts store to buy fuel line for a car he was rebuilding.

“He had the receipt on him that shows the time he bought the part and was literally heading back to his house when he got shot and killed,” said Gunzenha. “He was not doing anything other than going to the store and coming back home.”

THE VICTIM

Angel’s obituary and a GoFundMe page started by his sister to help with funeral expenses paints a picture of the life taken away.

“Angel could capture a room of people like no one else,” his sister wrote.

He liked going to car shows and restoring his 1978 Monte Carlo. He’d been a painter and construction worker for the same company for more than nine years. He was hardworking and loyal. He was also a doting father. His son was three years old when he was killed, according to Angel’s girlfriend, who spoke to KCTV5 by phone.

She calls police nearly every month, Gunzenha said, hoping for news of something more than what they do know, which is not nearly enough to know for sure who killed him or why.

TWO THEORIES

Mistaken Identity

Police have found no video of the shooter’s car driving down Ruby after speeding off from the highway exit ramp, but they did locate video of another car speeding off in the opposite direction. That video that leads them to believe the shooters may have been gunning for someone else.

They would not share the video from a nearby security camera on Ruby because they said it would reveal the location and possibly put the person who obtained it at risk.

They say it showed a white sedan speeding down Ruby during and after the shooting. Angel was driving a similar looking white sedan.

They wonder, was the shooter chasing the other sedan, which got ahead of them? Then, when the shooter got to the stop sign at the end of the ramp, there’s a white sedan. Did they mistake Angel’s car for the one they were after?

“And as they come down the bottom of the ramp, they turn off, and then here’s Angel sitting there, waiting to make his turn. And the suspect immediately assumed that was the same car that they were chasing,” Gumzenha said, describing how detectives developed that theory.

Gang rivalry

Another option police are considering is that someone with a grudge from more than a decade ago finally acted on it.

Police know Angel was d with a gang long ago. Gunzenha found record of a police interaction 11 years prior to his murder. The detective couldn’t exactly what sparked the interaction but said it was something minor and non-violent like graffiti.

“When he had with the police, it was noted that he had self itted that he was a gang member,” Gunzenha said. “But in those 11 years since then, there was nothing else on the radar.”

His family told investigators he left the gang when he was younger and was focused on working and raising his son.

Gunzenha has every reason to believe them. If Angel had still been involved with gangs, Gunzenha reasoned, police would know.

“His name would have come up on the radar,” Gunzenha said.

It didn’t.

But after his death, another name did come up. They got a tip that someone was out for revenge, someone who had been locked up for years and was released during a time frame consistent with Angel’s murder.

“We received information that somebody that he had run-ins with as a gang member 11 years prior to this finally had a chance to exact some revenge,” Gunzenha said. “If they’ve just gotten out of prison and this was the opportunity to get somebody back, it’s [a] very valid [theory].”

SEEKING INFORMATION

Angel died several days after the shooting. He was kept alive so that his organs could be donated to save others. His son is now five years old.

In the business of homicide investigation, there’s little joy. The closest thing to that is giving a family some answers and eventually some justice.

“Me being able to call his girlfriend and say that we’ve got the guy that killed Angel, one, it would mean a lot to me. But on the flipside of that, I know how much it would mean to her, which out of this whole tragedy of a homicide, that’s one of the few positives that you get,” Gunzenha explained.

Angel’s sister commented on a police Facebook post the day after he was shot, pleading for someone to step forward.

“I know it’s hard to speak up,” she said, “but any information you might be able to give would help keep a murderer from getting away with this.”

Anyone with information can call the Greater Kansas City Crimestoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. Calls are anonymous and a reward of up to $5,000 is available for a tip that leads to an arrest.

You can also the police department’s investigations unit directly at (913)-573-6020.

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