The Black community in Kansas City is calling for a white man to be charged with murder after yelling a racial slur moments before stabbing a Black man to death on July 4.
It’s been two weeks since Sean Walter Tonkin, 36, took the life of Jon Rone Jr., a 41-year-old Black man, by stabbing him twice in the chest. The family is still wondering why he only faces a peace ordinance charge.
The incident took place outside a gas station located at 14306 E. U.S. 40 Highway in Kansas City, Missouri, just before 2:30 p.m. on July 4.
According to witnesses and court records, Tonkin provoked a confrontation with Rone and used hate speech before stabbing him twice in the chest.
Witnesses said Tonkin asked, “Do you wanna see a white man f*ck up a n*gger?”
“Multiple witnesses at the scene of the cutting described that the cutting suspect was repeatedly using the word ‘n*gger’ prior to and during a verbal altercation with the victim in front of the business,” reads the probable cause statement.
The Kansas City Star newspaper describes what police say witnesses told them:
In an affidavit of probable cause for the search warrant, detectives wrote that two women they interviewed reported speaking with the killer moments before the attack.
Both said a stocky white man wearing a dirty T-shirt and blue shorts had approached them. One said he “began to hit on her,” and both described him repeatedly using a racial slur as he was asked to stop.
At one point, the man began to speak “disrespectfully” to Rone, the homicide victim, including by calling him the N-word. The men argued, the witnesses said, then walked to the east side of the business.
One witness said she saw the suspect throw the first punch. They fought, and Rone fell to the ground, she said. Then the killer pulled a knife from his right pocket and stabbed Rone in the torso.
Emergency responders arrived on the scene and found Rone unresponsive and suffering from…
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