A stabbing outside church in south KC won’t stop the compassionate approach

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) – A transient man camping in a tent on the grounds of the Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene has been charged with assault and accused of stabbing a member of the congregation who tried to kill him to help with the Sunday service at 11 a.m.

Jarod Hill is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action and is being held on a $100,000 cash bond. The court’s charging document lists his address as “homeless.”

The church on the northeast corner of 119th Street and State Line Road preaches a message of compassion, but they try to balance that with caution.

“We try to be open, but we try to be cautious. That’s why we have these teams,” said Dale Jones, the pastor in charge of administrative duties.

Several members of the community form the so-called emergency team. They work in groups to ensure that no one is alone outside the church on days when there are services or classes. The man who was stabbed was on that team.

Jones said the first time anyone knew about the man sleeping in a tent between their playground and the church office was Sunday morning. A review of church cameras revealed he had spent two nights there.

“I think the first contact any of us made with them was to invite them to a service,” Jones said. “To be honest, he seemed a bit off to the guy who asked him, so he didn’t pursue the matter any further.”

A while later, he said, Hill began chatting with some people at the church entrance.

“Several people had interacted with the guy, the alleged attacker, several times a day and found him to be a pleasant person who was easy to talk to,” Jones said.

The first interaction, described in the police statement supporting the criminal charges, described Hill as upset about his tent. One of many witnesses described it in detail.

“Hill told him that ‘The Masons’ had sprayed his tent with chemicals and that ‘The Masons’ and his ex were targeting him,” court documents state.

Hill wanted them to review their surveillance camera footage to find the perpetrator. They didn’t fire him or tell him to leave. They agreed to review the footage and invited him to dinner while they did so. According to court documents, Hill was upset when they returned and said they couldn’t find any footage of anyone spray-painting his tent. Hill called them liars. They told him he had to leave or he would call the police.

According to several witness accounts, Hill slowly exited the building and then stopped at the entrance. A witness described Hill as uncooperative. The same witness said that the situation appeared to have calmed down.

While standing outside, Hill said he had to make his way to a laundromat and then asked for a taxi, another witness said. The witness said the victim was on the phone looking for the nearest laundromat when Hill put the victim in a headlock with his left arm, then reached into his pocket with his right hand to get a knife and began to attack the victim to stab in the chest.

Numerous members of the church’s emergency response team, including one who identified himself as a retired police officer, jumped in to stop Hill and take the knife away from him. A nurse in the community cared for the victim.

One person said he jumped on the hill. Another said he stepped on Hill’s wrist to try to dislodge the knife from his grip. Another described trying to wrestle the knife away. One person described sitting on the hill until police arrived. Another said he held Hill’s legs down with a belt.

A witness said Hill “said the victim was a Freemason and Hill was a follower of Jesus Christ.”

According to court documents, Hill attempted to rip a police officer’s gun from its holster as police placed him in the back of a van.

Jones said the victim is in his 80s and is recovering well. He was expected to be released from the hospital on Monday.

He said the church will discuss the incident and consider the charges, but it will almost certainly continue to show compassion and offer help if anyone appears to be struggling.

“We will probably lock the doors more often than we kept them locked before. We’re going to make people take a closer look. We make sure we have a team together whenever we meet with anyone,” Jones said. “But I can’t imagine us just saying, ‘Go away.’ That’s not our style.”

The probable cause statement filed with the indictment shows that Hill made a brief statement to investigators asking if they were religious and referring to “Freemasons” before requesting an attorney.

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