For immediate release
April 22, 2016

A 24-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of his 2-year-old daughter in a residence Thursday in Kansas City, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.

Courtenay Shaquel Block, dob: 3/13/1992, faces Endangering the Welfare of a Child in the 1st Degree, Armed Criminal Action and Tampering With Physical Evidence.*

"This homicide was 100 percent preventable," Baker said. "This is tragic. We must do a better job of protecting our most vulnerable, our children."

According to court records, Kansas City police officers arrived at the residence in the 2600 block of Lawn on Thursday afternoon and found the defendant holding an unresponsive child. She had apparently been shot in the heard. The Medical Examiner examined the victim and determined the cause of death to be a gunshot wound. Block told police he kept a loaded handgun in his residence. Block said he heard the victim crying and observed his handgun on the floor next to the victim. He picked up the gun and walked to the bathroom to conceal it. Then he walked outside with the victim and notified a neighbor, who called police. Officers found the handgun in a bathroom floor vent covered by a child's T-shirt. The victim was 2 years old, born in the summer of 2013.

The case remains under investigation.

Prosecutors have requested a bond of $150,000.

For more information, contact:

Michael Mansur
Director of Communication
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office
Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor
Work : (816) 881-3812
Mobile: (816) 674-3954
mmansur@jacksongov.org
http://jacksoncountyprosecutor.com

*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded.