Jury selection is set to begin Aug. 31 in the case against Fredrick Scott, the man accused of shooting and killing six people in and around South Kansas City and Grandview between 2016 and 2017. A judge has confirmed the trial will move forward, capping nine years of delays driven by repeated fluctuations in Scott's mental competency, changes in judges and defense attorneys, and Missouri's chronic shortage of state psychiatric hospital beds.
Scott was originally charged in August 2017, according to KSHB 41 Kansas City, and additional charges followed in March 2018 after a Jackson County grand jury indicted him on three more murder counts, bringing the total to six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of armed criminal action, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office. Police identified Scott as a suspect when he was 22 years old, and the trial is now slated to start Sept. 3, 2026, per the station's report.
A Trail of Violence Across South Kansas City
The first victim, 54-year-old local cook John Palmer, was shot multiple times along Indian Creek Trail in August 2016 and dragged into nearby woods, according to KCUR. Scott initially admitted to killing Palmer and Steve Gibbons, a 57-year-old husband and father of two who was fatally shot after stepping off a KCATA bus, the same account notes. DNA from a cigarette butt matched a Brisk iced tea bottle found near the Gibbons scene and a T-shirt recovered at the Palmer scene, according to KCUR's reporting. Scott has claimed the gun went off as he pulled it from his pocket and described Gibbons' shooting as an accident.
Other victims included David Lenox, a 67-year-old Vietnam War veteran shot and killed in February 2017 in the Willow Creek Apartments parking lot, and Timothy Rice, a 57-year-old homeless man found dead about a month later near a shelter house by the trail. Mike Darby, the 61-year-old co-owner of Coach's Bar & Grill, was fatally shot in May 2017 while walking his dogs near the trail, dying from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Karen Harmeyer, a 64-year-old homeless woman, was shot in the 1200 block of Blue Ridge Boulevard in Grandview; detectives speculated she might have been mistaken for a man, and police attributed her death to Scott as well.
Motive Questions and a 2014 Threat
Five of Scott's six victims were older white men; the sixth, Harmeyer, was a homeless woman. During interrogation, per the probable cause statement, Scott said he was angry over his brother's 2015 stabbing death, but authorities have given no official motive. Prosecutors never brought hate crime charges, even though records from a Kansas City alternative school allege that Scott, in January 2014, threatened a Columbine-style shooting and said he wanted to kill all white people, according to CBS News. Security video and DNA evidence ultimately led police to Scott, who routinely used Indian Creek Trail himself, a trail that runs through neighborhoods across South Kansas City.
The unsolved shootings terrorized the community and kept parts of south Kansas City on edge, KCUR reported at the time. Scott's public defender has indicated the defense does not plan to address his mental health during trial, even though his competency has been central to the case for years.
Nine Years of Delays Tied to Mental Health Backlog
Scott is schizophrenic, and his defense has argued at various points that he was not competent to stand trial. He went off his medication while in custody, and jail staff cannot force an inmate to take medication — only the Missouri Department of Mental Health can compel it, and that agency has limited bed space and faces a backlog of cases. A KSHB 41 report from January 2025 found that a mental competency evaluation alone could take up to four months to schedule, with an additional wait of roughly 12 months for an available bed. Missouri law requires competency-assessment reports to be provided to courts every 180 days, with a 150-day stretch target, according to the Missouri Office of Administration. The broader backlog comes as court-ordered mental evaluations have increased 48% in five years, while Missouri Department of Mental Health staffing troubles have compounded delays, First Alert 4 reported.
That backlog reflects a broader pattern of delays in competency cases. The backlog has also raised questions about how to ease the waitlist.
In July 2024, a planned two-day evidentiary hearing was suspended after Scott had a courtroom outburst, cursing at his public defender and prompting Judge Charles Frazier to clear the courtroom, according to The Independent. Defense attorney Patrick Berrigan maintained that Scott's competency remained unstable without consistent medication. Scott was ultimately deemed competent to stand trial in July 2025.
Jury Selection Underway, Families Wary
About half of potential jurors have already been dismissed, either for familiarity with the case or personal hardships, KSHB 41 reported. Defense preparation has cited an estimated 113 potential witnesses, and the defense has also requested more time to prepare. Case files in the matter remain sealed to the public, and the judge has denied KSHB 41's requests to place a camera in the courtroom.
Mike Darby's family attended roughly 60 court hearings over seven years while awaiting trial, The Independent reported. Bill Darby, reflecting on the years of delay, said the families are less than two weeks away from trial but anything can happen. He also said he is grateful it is finally coming to a conclusion, adding, “I am so grateful that it is finally coming to a conclusion to starting the trial.” Following the most recent hearing, both the defense and the state declined to comment.
