A man arrested in the shooting deaths of two women and the wounding of two others at a Kansas City nightclub early Sunday has faced both state and federal criminal cases in recent years.
The Kansas City Police Department identified the suspect in Sunday’s shooting as 27-year-old Dontae M. Brooks, a man previously convicted in federal court of possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. Brooks was reportedly on supervised federal release at the time of the two women’s murders.
Tishuana Ballard, 24, and Eboni Silas, 29, died from gunshot wounds, while another woman and a man were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover.
Authorities say surveillance video from inside the Status KC club shows the suspect entering the facility around 1:51 a.m., and that an unknown person whispered in his ear around 2:04 a.m. before the supsect opened fire toward a man dancing. Investigators found five shell casings at the scene.
Cameras showed the suspect fleeing the scene after shots were fired, leaving a red baseball cap behind. Authorities say they were able to trace DNA from the hat that matches Brooks’.
Brooks was being held Thursday at the Jackson County jail on a $200,000 cash-only bond. Fox4 reports he’s charged with “two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of armed criminal action, one count of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree assault, one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm.”
Besides the federal case, The Heartlander has obtained court records showing Brooks was also charged in state court – a 2018 Wyandotte County case in which he was found in a stolen car with cocaine, marijuana, a handgun and an assault rifle.
The court records indicate Brooks was arrested for:
- possession of cocaine with intent to distribute
- possessing a firearm in futherance of committing a crime
- possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
- possession of drug paraphernalia
- possession of hydrocodone
The handgun also was stolen from Clay County, the records show, while the stolen Ford Explorer was stolen from a dealership.
That case was ultimately dismissed. It’s not clear why, though it could’ve been dismissed to make way for the federal charges.
