Scare enthusiasts in KC return after shooting on opening night

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    KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV/KSMO ) — There was panic in the West Bottoms last night when two people were shot near The Edge of Hell and The Beast haunted houses on opening night.

Kansas City police are still investigating that shooting.

The incident forced both locations to close down early,

KCTV5’s Greg Payne spoke with Eliana Franco on Saturday, who was there and witnessed the chaos.

“It was really sad to me,” she said.

That night, Franco was out with her family and friends in to experience the opening night thrills at The Edge of Hell.

“It was supposed to be a fun night,” she said. “I had my friends going. We had dressed up for it and we were really excited.”

However, the night quickly took a turn for the worst.

“Whenever they started fighting and, like, more people started going in and started fighting with them, we knew something else was going to happen,” Franco said.

She and her mother decided it was time to gather everyone up and leave, but the arguing got drowned out by gunfire moments later and they found themselves in the middle of chaos.

“At that moment, they are scared,” Andrea Franco recalled. “I have other kids trying to jump over my truck and it was just a scary, scary moment.”

Two people were shot and treated at an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, but police have yet to find the crime scene.

Eliana Franco said the lines and wait time were very long last night, something The Edge of Hell acknowledged in a statement saying:

“Due to COVID protocols in place, the wait to get inside was longer than usual. There were a few incidents reported of people cutting in line that resulted in disturbances.”

The Edge of Hell did have to close down early last night, but they are back open today. Despite the incident, there was a large crowd in front of their door.

“I was actually here last night too, but we didn’t get to go in because of what happened,” said Keiryae Emery, who was at Edge of Hell today. “I was, like, so excited because this will be my second haunted house. The first was at Worlds of Fun, so this is going to be so cool. I’m excited.”

Shay Phillips was also there today and said, “Kansas City has been dealing with a lot of gun violence and so forth and so on, so I want to be someone that’s an advocate of showing that things can be done properly and taken care of properly.”

The other nearby haunted attraction, The Beast, is owned by the same group that runs The Edge of Hell. They also closed down early last night.

Officials from the haunted attractions say they will have increased staff and security outside from now on. Also, the KCPD says they’ll be keeping an even closer eye on the area as well.

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