Nine people were left nursing injuries following a shooting in the early hours of Saturday morning near England’s designated World Cup training base in Kansas City, Missouri, raising fresh security questions in the host city just days before the tournament gets underway.
Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) Captain Jake Becchina confirmed that officers were dispatched to Troost Avenue at approximately 4am local time after reports of gunfire. On arrival, officers encountered a large crowd in the process of dispersing. Three adult females were initially identified at the scene and transported to hospital, though it subsequently emerged that a total of nine adults had independently made their way to various local medical facilities. All nine injuries were described as non-life threatening.
No suspects have been detained, though officers have maintained an active patrol presence in the vicinity. Troost Avenue sits a short distance from England’s training base camp at Swope Soccer Village home to Sporting KC’s reserve team and academy operations and is positioned in the opposite direction from the team hotel the squad will occupy for the duration of the competition.
We knew we needed the funding, so we kept moving forward with the planning. We figured eventually that funding source would come through.” – KCPD Deputy Chief Derek McCollum
The incident arrives against the backdrop of a significant investment in World Cup security in Kansas City. Just two days prior, on Thursday, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners formally accepted a $17 million federal grant earmarked specifically for tournament safety and security operations.
KCPD Deputy Chief Derek McCollum stated that planning had continued in anticipation of the funding being confirmed.
England’s players and backroom staff are not currently in Kansas City. The squad is presently based in Palm Beach, Florida, completing their pre-tournament preparations. On Saturday, they secured a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in their opening warm-up fixture in Tampa, with a second preparatory match against Costa Rica scheduled for Wednesday at the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando.
The Three Lions are due to fly into Kansas City on Saturday, June 13, where they will remain for the entirety of their World Cup campaign, training at Swope Soccer Village in the south-east of the city. England are joined in Kansas City by two other heavyweight countries defending champions Argentina, who will use Sporting KC’s principal training facility, and the Netherlands, who will base themselves at the training ground of NWSL club Kansas City Current.
The shooting is unlikely to directly impact England’s preparations given that the squad remains in Florida at this stage, but it will inevitably heighten scrutiny of the security arrangements in place across the city particularly given the concentration of high-profile footballing nations stationed there for the month-long competition.
KCPD officers are continuing to patrol the Troost Avenue area as the investigation proceeds.
Source: The Athletic