Home United States USA — mix Man Charged With Murdering 4-Year-Old Whose Killing Prompted U. S. Anti-Crime Operation

Man Charged With Murdering 4-Year-Old Whose Killing Prompted U. S. Anti-Crime Operation

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The Justice Department last month named an operation to combat violent crime in cities after LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept in an apartment in Kansas City, Mo.
The authorities said on Thursday that they had arrested and charged a man with killing LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year-old boy from Kansas City, Mo., whose shooting death led the Justice Department to begin an operation in his name that sent hundreds of federal agents into cities to confront a rise in violence. The man, Ryson Ellis,22, of Kansas City, was charged with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action, according to Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor in Jackson County, Mo. LeGend was killed on June 29 when a shot was fired into an apartment in Kansas City and struck him while he slept, the authorities said. Last month, President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr announced that Operation Legend, named for the child, would send agents from the F. B. I., the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to at least six cities, beginning with Kansas City, in an effort to stem violent crime. Mr. Trump, who has sought to make “law and order” a campaign theme and has denounced “Democrat-run cities” as he seeks re-election, painted a grim picture of bloodshed in urban America as he announced the operation at the White House, where he was joined by LeGend’s parents and grandparents. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Mr. Trump welcomed the arrest of Mr. Ellis and held up a photograph of LeGend, whom he called a “wonderful young man.” “As you know, we named Operation Legend after LeGend Taliferro, where we’re going to be helping out, and are in the process of helping out, the cities throughout our country that have difficulty with crime, in particular certain types of crime,” Mr. Trump said. “So that’s really good news — they caught the killer of LeGend.” In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Barr said the arrest “marks a significant step forward in his case and illustrates the potential of Operation Legend more broadly.

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