After complaints of illegal sideshows, Kaw Point Park in KCK to close at night

Posted: Nov 10, 2020 / 07:55 PM CST

Updated: Nov 10, 2020 / 08:21 PM CST

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — After complaints about illegal sideshows, Kaw Point Park will now close overnight.

Wyandotte Parks and Recreation, the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department and Kansas City, Kansas police announced Tuesday that Kaw Point Park will close daily from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

“The decision was made in an effort to manage and minimize the on-going issue of unauthorized after-hours gatherings at the park that have caused significant property damage and pose the potential to be super-spreader events,” the Kansas City, Kansas Police Departmetn said on Facebook.

Recently, residents of KCK’s Strawberry Hill neighborhood have grown frustrated with drinking and illegal sideshows that take place at the park overnight.

In September, resident Leo Eilts told FOX4 that he could hear screeching tires from his house.

“It’s frankly a little scary,” Eilts said. “I’m a full-grown adult male, and to be honest with you, I don’t like hanging around here all that much when this happens,” he said about the burnouts and sideshows.

He said sometimes there were nearly 600 people filling the parking lots surrounding the park.

“Sometimes the spectators are no more than 20 or 30 feet away from this,” Eilts said. “These guys are not professionals and a car being driven that way can get away really easy. With all the humanity spread around it — men, women and children alike — it could be a really bad result.”

There was also a double shooting that injured two men at Kaw Point Park Nov. 8.

“While the early-morning shooting which took place there on Sunday did not precipitate this decision, it certainly reinforces it,” KCKPD said.