Alleged Kansas City Serial Killer Threatened To ‘Kill All White People’ Prior To First Murder
Fredrick Scott is accused of killing multiple middle-aged white males in 2016 and 2017.
Police Arrest Alleged Serial Killer Fredrick Scott
Kansas City, MO – A series of four murders since August, 2016, put this city on edge, and the suspect’s motive is believed to be racial.
The murders were of four white men, and the serial killer suspect, Fredrick Scott, had threatened to blow up his high school “Columbine-style” and threatened to “kill all white people” in the past, according to The Washington Post.
The most recent murder occurred on August 30. Steven Gibbons, age 57, got off a bus at a bus stop near Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery.
Gibbons walked down Troost, then east on 67th Street, on his way home from a daily run to the grocery store, and to his 80-year-old mother who lived with him.
A man later identified as Scott began to follow Gibbons, sipping on a Brisk Iced Tea from a screw top bottle as he walked behind the other man.
A few moments later, a gunshot was heard, and Gibbons was found dead with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Scott’s image was captured on surveillance video fleeing down 67th Street in the opposite direction.
Scott was charged by Kansas City police last week with Gibbons’ murder, but their investigation wasn’t over yet.
There were three other murders that were similar; three middle-aged white men were murdered after being shot on or near the popular Indian Creek Trail. Scott has been named as the suspect in the other three murders.
The first murder occurred on August 19, 2016. The victim, John Palmer, age 54, a local chef who loved the outdoors, was found dead, lying in the woods just off of the Indian Creek Trail.
He had been shot multiple times, and police said that he had been killed then moved into the brush.
Police found two 9mm shell casings and a red shirt near his body. The red shirt was sent to the regional crime lab for analysis, where the victim’s blood was found on it, as well as “another source of unknown DNA”.
The second murder occurred on February 27, and the victim was David Lenox, age 67.
Police responded to a report of shots fired and found Lenox’s body outside of his apartment building at the Willow Creek Apartment Complex, located near the trail.
Lenox had been walking his dog, which was found standing next to its owner. He had been shot once in the back of the head, and a single .380 caliber shell casing was found under his body.
The .380 shell casing was also sent to the crime lab. Analysis showed that the bullet could have been fired from a 9mm handgun, not a .380, and that it was “likely used” in a SCCY XP-1 brand handgun.
The third murder occurred on April 4, and the victim was Mike Darby, age 61, a local restaurant owner.
His body was found on the trail, and he, too, had been shot in the back of his head, only this time with a .22 caliber gun. Police found their first real lead, surveillance video from a nearby camera that saw a man walking on the trail near where the murder occurred.
The video was released to the public and police asked for their help in identifying the man.
After Gibbons was killed, police searched the nearby area and found a discarded 32-ounce screw top Brisk Iced Tea bottle on 67th Street. Detectives used video footage and old bus schedules and found video of a man matching the earlier footage at a gas station near the bus stop.
That recording showed the man purchasing that particular drink.
On August 16, a police officer saw a man matching the description from the video footage. The man was smoking a cigarette, sitting on a wall near the crime scene, and the officer started a conversation with him.
The man told the officer that his name was Fredrick Scott, and dropped his cigarette as he left. The officer waited until the suspect left, then grabbed the cigarette butt, and submitted it as evidence to the crime lab.
An analysis showed that the DNA on the cigarette butt matched the DNA from the discarded iced tea bottle, and it also matched the “unknown DNA’ on the red shirt found at the Palmer crime scene.
After Scott was arrested in August, he was interviewed by detectives. He confessed to both the Gibbons and Palmer murders after being confronted with the evidence. Scott claimed that he accidentally shot Gibbons, after his gun went off while he was removing it from his pocket.
He also confessed to Palmer’s murder, and admitted that he had moved the body.
Scott told detectives that he had reported the handguns used in both of those murders missing later so he could “disassociate” himself from the weapons. He has denied involvement in the other homicides. But evidence showed that he had a friend who lived in the same apartment complex as Lenox, and that he had reported a handgun missing five days after Lenox was murdered.
He also admitted to being familiar with Indian Creek Trail because he said he used it for a shortcut.
He repeatedly told police that he was “angry over the death of his brother.” During his interview, Scott mumbled repeatedly under his breath “they didn’t see it coming.”
Police discovered that Scott had bought four handguns between August 2016 and August 2017. Three were SCCY 9mm pistols.
Fredrick Scott has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action, and additional charges are expected. He was charged in 2013 with assault of his mother. He was also charged for the threat he made at high school, and later received probation.
