KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man connected to a shootout that injured two people following a high school basketball game at North Kansas City High School on March 2, 2024, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday.

Michael Smallwood pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault, one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of fourth-degree assault back in March.

Smallwood will serve six years for the first count of second-degree assault, seven years for the second count of second-degree assault, four years on the unlawful use of a weapon charge and one year on the charge of fourth-degree assault.

The sentences are set to be served consecutively.

While the prosecutors said they plan to ask the judge for a 19-year prison sentence for Smallwood in the plea agreement entered in March, the agreement allowed Smallwood and his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence.

“I was fired at and I shot back, understanding that it was reckless for me to do that in a crowd of people,” Michael Smallwood wrote in the plea agreement.

Michael and his younger brother, Lavon’Dre Smallwood, were both originally charged with armed criminal action and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon in connection with the shootout.

Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said the shooting started after a dispute between two groups of young men who were leaving a Missouri Class 6, District 8 basketball game between Staley and North Kansas City.

KSHB 41 I-Team’s Caitlin Knute obtained surveillance video of the shootout. You can watch her report below.

KSHB 41 I-Team obtains video showing shooting outside North Kansas City High School

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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A principal released and grades allegedly changed to meet graduation requirements: Wichita Southeast High School is in the spotlight at the state level as Kansas lawmakers address claims of grade tampering. The situation has also prompted a debate on how best to measure school success.

Following the report from Kansas’s largest school district, the state’s school finance task force dove into the issue.

“They were really promoting the idea that their graduation rates had improved by 5%. And then I go and look online to pull up that particular school’s results and they’re almost twice as bad as our state’s for the lowest category,” said Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, of Southeast High School.

The questioning follows Wichita Public Schools’ celebration of district-wide improvements for graduation rates, reporting the more-than 5% jump from 2023 to 2024. But with that celebration comes the investigation into grade tampering at Wichita Southeast.

In a statement Wednesday, Wichita Public Schools confirmed “less than 10 students’ records were changed and there is no indication of data inaccuracies in past years.”

The acknowledgement of grade tampering is enough to get Rep. Williams to question the use of graduation rates to measure student success.

“Graduation rates are not correlated at all. I mean, if we want to babysit, that’s one thing. We want to have a safe place for them, that’s one thing, but that doesn’t mean you’re learning anything,” she said.

Not everyone feels the same.

“I think when you look at any industry, including the legislature, there are bad actors that you have to do things around. That doesn’t mean you should throw out that metric altogether,” said Kansas State Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Dr. Frank Harwood.

Dr. Harwood said while graduation rates are the best indicator of economic drivers, there are other things to consider.

“We could talk to business and industry about what those things are,” he said. “When we have those conversations, it’s actually about character development much more so than many other things, so I mean if we’re going to talk about some of those things, employers are looking at character development much more than they’re looking at state assessment scores.”

Ultimately, lawmakers say that if a diploma is going to be used to measure success, then they need to define what graduation really means.

“I’m hearing some employers say for some reason, they’re getting the really great students coming out, and then I’m getting those that say, ‘Wow, they really aren’t coming out knowing or being able to do much,’” said Kansas Sen. Renee Erickson, R-Wichita.

Kansas lawmakers haven’t decided on how best to measure student and school district success, or whether they’ll change current practices.

Copyright 2025 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A multi-vehicle crash in Kansas City Thursday morning resulted in minor injuries for six people.

The Kansas City Fire Department said it happened on Linwood Boulevard in the area of Bruce R. Watkins Drive.

The crash occurred just after 8 a.m. and resulted in six people being transported for evaluation, with four of those patients being children, KCTV said.

No serious injuries were reported.

KCFD said the scene has been cleared and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department is investigating the crash.

Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.