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The shooting near Westport that injured five started with a robbery at a music studio

The shooting near Westport that injured five started with a robbery at a music studio

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A man injured during an Oct. 9 shootout at a Westport recording studio has been charged with attempted robbery and two other felonies.

Jackson County prosecutors have charged Jerome Washington, age not listed, with attempted first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm – dangerous felon/prior conviction.

The shooting, which injured five people, happened at a recording studio at 315 Westport Road around 8 p.m.

A court document states that one of the shooting victims told police that he and two other men had gone to the studio to make music.

The victim told police he normally called the recording studio’s producer to be let into the building.

The men found the entrance door open and decided to go inside.

They walked upstairs and found five men with rifles and AR-style pistols with high-capacity drum magazines, the court document said.

The producer told the three men to leave and two of them went to a recreation room on the other side of the studio.

One man remained in the studio and Washington walked up to the man and wouldn’t let him leave.

Washington hit the victim in the head with a gun, searched his pockets and attempted to steal the victim’s backpack.

The men in the recording studio exchanged gunfire with at least one of the victims.

Police found three men with serious gunshot wounds. Two other victims went to a hospital on their own.

The city closed the company, Westport Media Collective, after the shootings because it was operating without proper licensing.