KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ When Ta'Nai Jones received the late-night call last week that a man she knew was found dead outside an east Kansas City home, she knew she had to go over there to check on her older sister, LaRona "Rhonda" Jones.
The two had talked over the phone earlier in the night. Her sister had sent her a text around 7:10 p.m., she recalled.
"She told me she loved me," Ta'Nai Jones said, "and I told her I loved her too."
When Ta'Nai came up on the scene near 45th Street and South Benton Avenue, she hadn't watched the news. She couldn't see her sister's car. But deep down in her heart, Ta'Nai said she knew.
LaRona Jones, 42, was soon identified by police as one of three people shot to death at the house in the 4500 block of South Benton Avenue sometime before 9 p.m. Oct. 17. Police also found the bodies of 40-year-old Larry Barnes and 38-year-old Brandy Jones.
On Thursday, one week after the killings, dozens of people, including Ta'Nai, gathered with red and yellow balloons in hand for a vigil led by KC Mothers in Charge.
Rosilyn Temple, executive director of the Kansas City chapter, said when she heard last week that three people had been killed, "my heart just cried."
The city stands at more than 120 homicides this year, Temple said. According to data kept by The Star, 123 people in Kansas City have been killed _ many dead from gun violence.
"We have a bad problem, but today we're here to celebrate the life ... of Miss Rhonda Jones."
Temple said LaRona Jones was at the house watching a Kansas City Chiefs game when she was killed. Family members and friends who spoke said she loved watching football and had interests in cars and music.
Ta'Nai Jones also described her sister as a caring, kindhearted woman who saved lives. She had recently been hired to work as a dialysis technician at a DCI Dialysis Clinic in south Kansas City.
Mary Porter, LaRona's mother, called her daughter "the chosen one" because at birth, Porter was told her daughter was sick and wouldn't live to see one year. But she had a plan, Porter said, "when the doctor said no, God said yes."
Ta'Nai Jones, who also knew the other victims, described Brandy Jones as a family-oriented woman who enjoyed cooking and remembered Larry Barnes as a man who loved his music.
"All three of them are going to be missed, but you just have to take it one day at a time," Ta'Nai Jones said.
Two suspects were arrested and charged shortly after the shooting. Lynnsey D. Jones, 35, and Victor Sykes, 43, are each charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with three counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
"When is it going to stop? When is this going to end? ... What is it about?" Tai'Nai Jones said she wonders. "Grab your kid, grab your loved one. ... We've all got families, we're hurting. Everybody else who has lost their loved one, they're hurting."
