KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two months after a young Kansas City father was shot and killed in a car in broad daylight, his family is calling for witnesses to come forward.

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department says Matthew Gatson Jr. was shot and killed on December 11, 2022.

His fiancé, Rain Spriggs, was driving the car that day and was also shot. She tells FOX4 doctors said it would be too dangerous for them to remove the bullet, which is still lodged in her back.

“My son, I don’t want to cry, but my son suffered,” Gatson’s mother, Elisha Gatson, said.

Less than a month after his 20th birthday, and two weeks before Christmas, the couple was driving back from running errands for the holiday.

Spriggs posted a video of them on social media shortly before they made it to the area of 63rd Street and 71 Highway.

“I told him that I was feeling weird, like something weird was about to happen,” Spriggs said.

Spriggs says a blue SUV Gatson had previously told her to “watch out for” pulled up next to them.
Spriggs believes Gatson knew someone was after him, but she doesn’t know who that was.

“As soon as I said his name, they started letting off multiple shots, and I was scared for my life,” Spriggs said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Family says Gatson was shot several times.

“I didn’t know that I was shot at the time,” Spriggs said. “I just drove us to the hospital. I was scared. I kept telling him, ‘Just stay. Please don’t leave me.’ And his last words were he loved me.”

Gatson died of his injuries that day at Research Medical Center.

“They told me if they took [the bullet out of my back] there would be a 50% chance the left side of my body would be paralyzed,” Spriggs said.

Spriggs says she still has pain and limited mobility in her left arm.

This was about 3:30 p.m. on a Sunday at a busy intersection. The family believes someone had to see something.

They say they don’t know who would want to hurt the couple, and they’re asking for help.

“We’re just fighting for justice for some answers of what happened,” Elisha Gatson said. “We just want justice, for whoever did this to come forward.”

KCPD says it has no information on the gunman, but they did recover a suspect vehicle. It’s being processed for evidence.

This remains unsolved and under investigation, one of 168 homicides in 2022.

KCPD says it has investigated shooting cases with 21 surviving victims so far in February 2023. In the same span in 2022, the number was nine.