Man charged in the stabbing death of a maintenance man

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — A man has been charged with murder after police say he stabbed an apartment maintenance worker to death on July 31, according to a statement from Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

Syan Crawford, 39, has been charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Police were called to Gotham Apartments at Linwood and Benton at 8:10 a.m. on a shooting, according to court documents. When they arrived, they found a victim of a stabbing, Larry Dickerson. He was covered with blood.

Dickerson later died on Aug. 2 as a result of his injuries.

A witness told police that Crawford had been sleeping in the stairway of the apartments, according to court documents. Dickerson, who was a maintenance man for the building and also lived there, called the police on Crawford. Police made contact, and Crawford temporarily left.

Several witnesses who live at the apartment told police that they knew Crawford. He had told one witness that he planned on retaliating against Dickerson for calling the police.

Another witness said they saw the two men arguing a short while later. Crawford then stabbed Dickerson with a knife and fled across the street. He was shot as he left, but he got up and limped away.

Crawford later told police that he felt like no one at the apartments respected him.

Police arrested Crawford after phone records and witnesses placed him at the scene at the time of the crime, according to court documents. Officers also witnesses several wounds on his legs.

Prosecutors requested a bond of $500,000.

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