Federal investigators concluded lax security allowed a suspended Veterans Affairs police officer to access a secured area and steal the gun he used to kill his wife, 12-year-old son and himself at their home in Kansas City’s Northland earlier this year, according to a newly-released investigative report.
Even after police took Jerel McGeachy Sr.’s law enforcement credentials away because of a court order that barred him from having a gun, he retained access to an arms room where his gun was stored at a Leavenworth VA site, investigators concluded. Just before the April 1 shooting, he slipped into the arms room, retrieved the gun and went to his family’s home to commit the crime, the report said.
Domonique McGeachy, 38, Jerel McGeachy Jr., 12, and Jerel McGeachy Sr., 38 , were found dead in their home in the 8300 block of Northwest 90th Street a few hours later in an apparent murder-suicide.
Domonique McGeachy, whose obituary described her as passionate about the issue of domestic violence and who “wanted for herself and others to be whole and healthy,” was remembered as an Army veteran and a loving mother. Even at a young age, her son Jerel Jr. was an accomplished public speaker known for commanding a room during dramatic recitations of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches.