30-07-2025
Grim video shows Purge-style double execution in notorious Mad Max city
Chilling surveillance video captured the moment a gunman shot two brothers dead inside a gas station in notoriously crime-plagued Kansas City.
Byron Garrett, 35, and his brother, Taylor, 32, were gunned down on the afternoon of July 20 while inside the Conoco station at the intersection of East Truman Road and Brooklyn Avenue, according to Fox 4 KC News.
The suspect, 27-year-old Emanuel Hernandez, was arrested at the scene but released after posting bond.
The Garrett family's attorney argued that the surveillance footage clearly supports a murder charge over the lesser charges Hernandez is facing after prosecutors said Taylor was the aggressor during the deadly run-in.
In the video, Emanuel is seen entering the gas station and arguing with the brothers, Fox 4 reported.
Taylor is shown swinging at Hernandez and striking him in the face.
Hernandez then pulled a gun from his waistband and pointing it at the brothers as they frantically tried to flee the store.
While the footage shared by Fox 4 ends there, the outlet said it showed Hernandez shooting the brothers before they collapsed to the floor. The footage also showed the suspect pistol-whipping Byron.
The conflict began before the gas station confrontation, according to the Garrett family's lawyer, who argued that the shooter followed the brothers inside the store after a road-rage incident just before
Officers responded to the scene just after 1:15pm to find both brothers unresponsive, according to an earlier report from KVTC 5 News.
EMS arrived, but Byron and Taylor were both pronounced dead before reaching the hospital.
Neither of the brothers were armed at the time.
Emanuel was arrested at the scene and charged with voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in Byron's death, but faced no charges in Taylor's death.
Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said that Taylor was the initial aggressor in the deadly confrontation, according to Fox 4.
'Mr. Hernandez stood over them... and kept shooting,' Garret family lawyer Howard Lotven told the outlet.
'He took three to four steps back, then went back towards them and pistol-whipped them.'
Lotven claimed the conflict began before the gas station confrontation, saying Hernandez followed the brothers inside after a road-rage incident just before.
'It actually started before then when Mr. Hernandez was driving down a wrong-way street,' the attorney told Fox 4.
'The Garretts flagged him down to tell him he was going the wrong way and he started an argument with them and then followed him to the station.'
Lotven said the brother's family told police that Byron's seven-year-old daughter witnessed the road-rage incident, but that police won't interview the girl.
On Tuesday, Emanuel posted $5,000 of a $50,000 bond and was released from jail.
Lotven argued that the surveillance video clearly shows Hernandez as the aggressor and could support up to two murder charges.
'There has to be a point in the law where you lose your right to self defense if the harm or threatened harm or perceived harm has stopped and no longer existed,' the lawyer told Fox 4.
A GoFundMe page has since been launched to help the Garrett family cover the costs of the brothers' funeral services.
'The family is not only facing the daunting task of arranging two funerals, but also left questioning why their loved one's murderer is not properly being charged with this heinous and senseless crime of shooting two UNARMED men,' the description reads 'Their lives mattered.'
So far this year, Kansas City has recorded 92 homicides, making it the city's second-deadliest in five years.
The city's downtown has become a hotspot for illegal street racing and reckless ATV and dirt bike riders tearing through neighborhoods.
