Suspect owed $29k in taxes before shooting Independence officers, process server
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was hesitant during a Friday news conference to get into the motivation of Thursday’s shooting that left an Independence police officer and a Jackson County civil service officer dead.
But it’s clear the suspect faced eviction due to more than $29,000-worth of unpaid property taxes, according to county records.
That property on N. Elsea Smith Road recently sold to a new owner. Prosecutors alluded that the shooting happened at the end of a process started about a year ago, with neighbors saying there were signs that something was not going well at the home.
On Friday, animal control took care of a horse outside of the suspect’s home as investigators continued their sweep of the property.
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“My grandkids come down on weekends and we pet his horses. We’ll come up to the fence and usually the horse are right here,” neighbor Jerry Coleman said.
“Everybody around here knows everybody and we didn’t know him very well, so,” Coleman said.
Larry Acree, 69, lived at the home on Coleman’s regular walking path. Coleman, along with other neighbors, says they sensed problems.
“Well we knew there were some issues going on last summer. They had posted a notice on the gate,” Coleman said.
“That went on for about a month and then the note was just kind of taken down. So we figured he hadn’t paid his taxes basically,” Coleman said.
Man charged in shooting of Independence officer, process server
Another neighbor, Mark Williams, said he was home when the second round of shooting started.
“It was something bigger than a 9 mm and it wasn’t a rifle. And it was semi-auto,” Williams, who shares a fence with Acree, said.
Williams said that, based on their sparse interactions, he knew Acree had a back problem. Neighbors also mention that the defendant hurt his shoulder after falling off his roof.
In fact, according to court documents, a roofing company sued Acree in 2022 for not paying for a job.
“It sounded like his tax issues had been going on for some time,” Williams said.
“The first two police officers got here and we had stepped around, we were actually standing right there just looking around the corner of the house and heard about seven shots,” Williams said.
“We did happen to see one of the police officers run down the driveway. And it looked like he was hobbling. So I assume maybe he’d been shot,” Williams said.
“I don’t know his mindset,” Coleman said. “He probably didn’t want to give up his home.”
“We were worried about him at one time because he kind of just had disappeared and we didn’t know if anybody was living there or not,” Coleman said.
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Court records show Acree has been divorced more than 10 years. Neighbors also said he lived alone, also adding that in brief conversations with Acree, he shared that he was a collector of reptiles and snakes, like boa constrictors.
