A man accused of a double murder early Thursday reportedly shot himself in the head as authorities moved to arrest him at an Independence motel Thursday night.
Jackson County prosecutors had charged Rufus L. Young, 38, with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of child endangerment. He was accused of killing his former girlfriend and her mother, who was holding a small child at the time, inside a Kansas City home.
Young was pronounced dead at a hospital late Thursday, said Capt. Floyd Mitchell of the Kansas City police.
City officials identified the former girlfriend as Naushay Riley, 35, who was a public health specialist with the city’s Health Department. Police identified her mother as Jackie M. Riley, 54.
Jackie Riley was holding Naushay’s 2-year-old when she was killed, police said. The child, who was fathered by Young, was not hurt. Naushay’s 9-year-old son saw his grandmother being shot and fled with the toddler before his mother was shot.
The boy now has lost both his parents to fatal shootings. He was inside a bedroom in 2005 when his father was shot in a home invasion robbery in Kansas City, police said.
Naushay and Jackie Riley were killed inside the mother’s home in the 4800 block of East 40th Terrace, where Naushay had fled with her two children after arguing with Young at her house. She broke up with him about two months ago, police said, but Young hadn’t accepted it. Police said he feared she was seeing someone new because she had recently lost weight.
According to police and court records, the 9-year-old son awoke early Thursday when he heard the door to his grandmother’s house open and the house alarm beeping. He then heard footsteps throughout the house and saw his mother’s former boyfriend standing in the bedroom with a gun.
Meanwhile, Naushay Riley called a friend and told her: “That fool just showed up here.” The friend called police.
Young pointed the gun at Jackie Riley, prompting her to yell: “No! No! Please don’t!”
After Young shot Jackie Riley, the boy grabbed the 2-year-old child and ran to the neighbor’s house. Young then shot Naushay Riley.
After the killings, Young called Naushay’s aunt and said that he had “killed her family” and that “she was next,” police said.
The aunt called police about 1:35 a.m. Officers went to the home and found the victims’ bodies.
Young was convicted of second-degree murder for the 1994 shooting at point blank range of a 17-year-old in St. Louis, according to court records. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he was released from custody in 2006 and from parole supervision in 2009, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections. That killing stemmed from a dispute between his family and the family of the victim, according to news reports at the time.
The Star’s Tony Rizzo and James Hart contributed to this report.
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