Kansas City Journalist Aviva Okeson-Haberman Dies After Getting Struck by Stray Bullet in Her Apartment

A young Kansas City journalist was fatally struck by a bullet that pierced through her apartment window over the weekend, according to KCUR, the radio station she worked for.

Police say Aviva Okeson-Haberman, 24, was found in her first-floor apartment Friday afternoon by a coworker who was concerned after she wasn't responding to messages. The colleague called authorities for a welfare check after she wasn't coming to the door, NBC reported.

While waiting, the coworker said she and another woman saw a bullet hole in the corner of a bedroom window and Okeson-Haberson wounded inside. She was discovered hours after the shooting took place, NPR reported. She died Sunday evening at the hospital.

Now her death is being investigated as a homicide, Kansas City Police Capt. Dave Jackson told reporters.

Okeson-Haberman was "an especially beloved friend and colleague just beginning what promised to be a brilliant career," KCUR, Kansas City's NPR station, said.

"What a tragic, damnable loss of a great reporter--and great soul," wrote Scott Simon, host of Morning Edition. "Our love and prayers to Aviva's family, and her @KCUR family. Thank you for the grace you gave this world."

“Aviva was brilliant,” KCUR news director Lisa Rodriguez said. “Even as an intern, her approach to storytelling and her ability to hold those in power accountable paralleled many a veteran reporter. She was quiet, which made it all the more satisfying to hear her challenge politicians and hold her ground, even when people in positions of great power tried to belittle her.”

Okeson-Haberman was a recent graduate of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 2019. While there she earned numerous awards including one for investigative reporting for her investigation of Missouri's elder abuse hotline. She and another colleague learned that thousands of calls went unanswered. Her reporting led to an investigation by the Missouri attorney general.

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