KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
Kansas City Police are investigating an aggravated assault after they say someone fired a pellet gun toward people standing in line outside of Fountain Haus.
The Westport bar is popular in the LGBTQ+ community. The line of people waiting to get in generally stretches down Broadway toward the intersection of Westport Road.
KCPD said they responded to reports of a disturbance outside Fountain Haus just after 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Officers contacted a victim who said they were outside the door of the business when they were hit by a pellet fired from a pellet gun.
No medical attention was required, but local leaders said this leads to a larger conversation of safety and security – especially during Pride month.
“It’s scary,” Justin Short, a community leader, said. “Last night, someone drove by and put BBs into folks. That’s horrifying.”
In an email to Short and other local leaders, the General Manager of Fountain Haus said a car drove by the line along Broadway early Sunday morning — shooting a BB gun out the window.
“Of course, this caused a lot of distress and instilled a lot of fear as it cleared out our whole line,” the email reads.
Short said the email was a call to action.
“You have to ask yourself, how different would it have been this morning if it was a gun? What tragedy would we be dealing with right now?” Short said. “It’s very clear that people in this state and country are upset about us celebrating who we are, and they’ve shown that they’re not afraid to act on that fear.”
As Pride month continues, he said this act heightens the focus on safety and security. KCPD said its LGBTQ Liaison has already been in touch with management at Fountain Haus – discussing safety for the bar moving forward.
“It is up to us to stand up to these microaggressions, to stand up to these folks who have a problem with our very existence and say enough is enough,” Short said.
Above all, Short said it is important that Pride celebrations carry on.
“We are going to go, and we are going to show up, and we are going to be darn proud of who we are. And we are not going to let actions like this scare us back into the closet because we’ve fought long and hard to get out of it,” Short said.
Right now, police said it is too early in the investigation to say if this was a hate crime. However, the department will maintain contact with the FBI in the case that it was.
If you know anything that could help detectives solve this case, call the Crimestoppers tips hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
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