Fernando Perez

He had round black earrings and dark hair that he combed to the left.

One Saturday night, he went out with two friends. After all three were hit by gunfire, they frantically drove to a local fire station around 11 p.m. "I just thought it was fireworks, so I kept watching TV," said a local boy.

Fernando Perez, 17, was shot and killed on Jan. 26, 2019, in Kansas City, Missouri. His death raised the city’s 2019 homicide count to nine, including another unrelated shooting that night. Each time someone is killed, a local minister asks: “What is it going to take?”