A 20-year-old Missouri man has been charged with murder in a road rage shooting a month ago that left a a 57-year-old man dead.
Laken Logan claimed the car driven by Cleveland Wright “swerved into his lane” so he “decided” to follow and “confront the driver,” a probable cause statement says.
The incident took place just before 8:30 p.m. on September 23 in Kansas City as Wright was delivering groceries with his wife and Logan and a coworker were returning to work after getting dinner.
“Laken stated he wanted to fight the other driver and get an apology,” the document says.
Logan said he had taken his gun from a backpack and put it on the center console then pulled up near the other car and yelled “Watch how you’re driving boy!” at the driver. He claimed he saw the other driver pull a gun, “got scared,” and fired multiple shots through the back window and then fled the scene.
Police said they did find a gun in Wright’s car, and the weapon had not been fired. Neither Wright’s wife nor the passenger in Logan’s car could say whether he had actually pulled out his own weapon. Wright’s wife said she thought he was at least reaching for it when Logan, driving erratically, sped past them and cut them off.
She said she heard the driver yell “Boy!” when he pulled up alongside them before the shots rang out.
Logan’s passenger said that Logan was speeding up to pass other cars when Wright’s car passed “very closely” to him. Logan was “turning red and was mad” as he chased the other driver, prompting the witness to caution his friend to “chill.”
“Laken pulled alongside the passenger side of the other car, and said, ‘Who you trying to hit boy?’” the probable cause statement says. “[The witness] observed Laken to be holding a pistol in his right hand. The driver of the other car, a black male, was holding his arm up, but it was not pointed in their direction. [The witness] could not see if there was anything in his hand.”
The witness said he heard his friend “cock” his pistol and then fire. As they sped away, he asked his friend why he did that, and the answer was, “Bro, I don’t know.” They drove back to work and finished their shift, the document says.
Investigators used street surveillance cameras and vehicle tracking information to eventually track down Logan’s Chevrolet Trax SUV and arrested him on October 22. Wright’s wife identified him from a photo lineup.
Logan told three different stories about what happened to the gun he used to kill Wright, first saying he threw it in the Missouri River and then naming two different people he claimed he sold it to.
In addition to murder, Logan is charged with two counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful use of a weapon, KCTV reports. He’s been ordered held on a $750,000 bond.
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[Featured image: Laken Logan/Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and Cleveland Wright/Facebook]
