2nd ex-security guard found guilty of murder in 2018 shooting outside Kansas City bar
Kansas City MO Aug 28 2020
A second security guard has been convicted of second-degree murder in the June 2018 fatal shooting a man outside a Kansas City bar, prosecutors said Wednesday night.
A judge found Markell Pinkins, 24, guilty in the killing of 45-year-old Kevin Thomas, who was shot in a car across the street from Yum Yum Bar & Grill near East 24th Street and Van Brunt Boulevard, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Pinkins, an employee of Force One Security and Consulting, was charged alongside his coworker, Christopher Jones, then 37. In December, Jones was convicted of second-degree murder.
Both men were working security at the bar that day. They ran across the street after hearing a “boom” and seeing a car hit a parked vehicle, according to charging documents.
The guards repeatedly asked Thomas to get out of the car, prosecutors alleged. When Thomas moved his car “not even a foot,” Jones and Pinkins both fired at him, according to court records.
Jones fired three times through the windshield; Pinkins fired through the open driver-side window, police said. Video of the incident did not show Thomas’ car moving aggressively at the guards, prosecutors said.
Police found Thomas lying handcuffed in the street next to his car. He was taken to the hospital and died from his injuries.
In court records, Pinkins and Jones said they fired their weapons in self defense. But both said they were not authorized to handle situations off the bar’s premises.
Force One Security and Consulting’s license to operate in Kansas City was revoked in September 2018 after two of its employees failed their firearm qualification test.
Pinkins will be sentenced Oct. 20.
