Soccer-Kansas City police hunt suspect in shootings that hit Uber driver en route to World Cup match

By Lori Ewing

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, June 18 (Reuters) – Police were still searching on Thursday for a man suspected of carrying out a series of shootings on Kansas City highways, including an attack on an Uber driver ferrying fans to Tuesday evening’s Argentina v Algeria World Cup match.

The shootings, which killed one person and injured four others, unfolded within a roughly 30-minute window along Interstate 670 and Interstate 70, with police responding to multiple scenes across the city.

A group of Argentina fans told Argentine outlet La Nacion that they were shot at while riding in an Uber to the game.

“The car was moving, another car came by and shot at it twice,” one fan said.

The passenger said the driver then stopped the car and they noticed he had been wounded.

“He braked, and I saw his leg, the guy had a hole in it,” the fan said. “We called the police. It was horrible.”

Authorities said there was no indication the attack was linked to the match or the tournament.

Police identified the suspect as 22-year-old Oscar Sanchez-Munoz, who they warned should be considered armed and dangerous.

Officers tracked the suspect to a house in nearby Independence, Missouri, shortly after the shootings, triggering a standoff. A fire broke out inside the property during the confrontation, and when police later entered the home, they found no one inside.

“We are hot on the trail of this subject and we want to make sure that he’s taken into custody as soon as possible,” Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves said at a press conference.

The shootings happened 10 days after nine people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting four miles from ​England’s World Cup base camp ‌in Kansas City.

(Reporting by Lori EwingEditing by Toby Davis)