For Immediate Release

May 7, 2020

A 43-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in connection with the fatal shootings of two men in the early morning hours Wednesday in a East Kansas City apartment  and at a gas station, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.

Matthew D. Harris, dob: 2/25/1977, faces two counts of Murder 2nd Degree and two counts of Armed Criminal Action.*

According to court records filed overnight, Kansas City police officers were dispatched to 5401 E. Winner Road and to a nearby apartment complex at 5306 Williamsburg on reported shootings. The defendant was found by police at the apartment complex. Police also found the first victim, Michael Groves, dob: 11/19/1977, deceased in his apartment apparently from gunshot wounds. An uninjured woman was also found in the apartment. At the Winner Road gas station, police reviewed surveillance video. It showed a man shooting at the victim at the station’s entrance. The shooter was dressed like the defendant when he was found at the apartment complex. The video also showed the victim running away. Police found him nearby. He was identified as Cleveland Fuller III, dob: 10/12/1983. After Harris was arrested at the apartment complex, he was taken to East Patrol for booking. He spontaneously uttered, police stated, that "it started at the gas station...someone shot at me so I shot back." 

Prosecutors requested a $400,000 cash bond.

 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.