Terrill S. Anderson, 40, was arrested on charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and two counts of armed criminal action. He’s accused of killing his stepsons, 23-year-old Adonis Knight and 30-year-old Mario Batrez, at their Independence, Missouri, home on Oct. 29, 2023.
A Missouri man is behind bars after he allegedly shot his wife’s two sons to death following an altercation.
The Independence Police Department on Friday arrested Terrill S. Anderson, 40, on charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and two counts of armed criminal action. He’s accused of killing 23-year-old Adonis Knight and 30-year-old Mario Batrez.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, police responded around 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 to a shots fired call at a home on the city’s southeast side. When they arrived, the caller, Anderson’s wife, said her husband shot her two sons. Officers found both victims dead in the kitchen. The affidavit only identifies the deceased as “Victim 1” and “Victim 2.” There were four shell casings near their bodies and four more casings in the trash can in the kitchen.
Surveillance video captured much of the incident between Anderson and the two brothers, authorities said. It allegedly showed assaults in the sub-basement and at the door to the garage. Anderson then grabbed a handgun and video shows him approaching Victim 1 in the lower living room while the mother holds her son back, according to investigators. Victim 1 was apparently holding a knife, the affidavit said. Victim 2 was in the kitchen looking at his phone, unarmed. Anderson went to the base of the stairs and fired “one or two warning shots” into the kitchen ceiling, according to the affidavit.
Knight and Batrez’s mother walked her two sons out of the house but both returned. While back inside the house she kept trying to keep Victim 1 away from Anderson. Victim 1 then reached around his mother to try and hit Anderson, who stepped back, authorities said. When Victim 1 tries to hit him again, Anderson allegedly shot him. The victim fell to the floor. Anderson is then accused of shooting Victim 2 despite the fact that the stepson made “no attempt” to do anything.
“Victim 2 falls to the floor after first shot and is laying face down. After falling to the floor [Anderson] shoots Victim 2 again,” detectives wrote. “The defendant then turns back to Victim 1 who is laying on the ground and shoots him again. [Anderson] then turns back to Victim 2 and shoots him for the third time who is still face down.”
Anderson was standing over Knight and Batrez the second and third times he shot them, the affidavit said. He also stomped on one of the victims, detectives said. He stayed on scene while his wife called 911. His three biological children, all juveniles, were upstairs at the time of the shooting. In an interview with investigators, Anderson claimed self-defense. He said he went to grab a gun in the garage after he was assaulted and went to the kitchen where he shot both victims.
Anderson said while he was unsure how many times he fired his gun, Victim 1 had a knife and Victim 2 had a gun. But the video showed neither victim had a weapon when they were shot and Victim 2 never was never armed at any point. He was taken to the Jackson County Jail where he’s being held on a $250,000 bond.
The homicides have left the family devastated. Batrez was a devoted father of two, while Knight was known for his love of family.
“They were family members, they were somebody’s sons, they were loved and any room that they walked into they could just light it up,” Elexa Thornburg, a cousin of the two victims told local Fox affiliate WDAF.
Knight would have turned 24 in a couple weeks and Batrez’s children are left without a father. Their family wants justice.
“You took two lives that meant the most to us and we just won’t be able to get them back. We just have to remember what we have now and it’s a dark place to be in right now,” she said.
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