Late on the night of December 3, 2017, 24-year-old Zachary Michael Lee Pearce was walking home from dinner with a friend near 40th and Walnut in the Westport area of Kansas City when a dark-colored SUV pulled up beside them. Witnesses variously described the vehicle as maroon or a blue 2000 Jeep Liberty with a large cargo carrier and Colorado plates. At least two people — and possibly a third, a female driver — were inside. A dark-skinned man got out armed with a handgun and demanded their belongings. Zachary and his friend handed over wallets and cell phones, but the gunman nevertheless fired, fatally striking Zachary; his friend was not physically injured. The assailants fled east on 40th Street and then south on Warwick Boulevard. Stolen items were later found discarded a short distance from the scene.

Zachary was a student at MCC Blue River studying to be a paralegal and worked at his family’s business. Family and friends remember his love of reading, his vinyl collection, and his enjoyment of spirited debates. The Kansas City Police Department opened a homicide investigation that remains unsolved and a reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest.

Did anyone in Westport that night see the described SUV or its occupants who could help move this case forward?