Operation Legend: Murderer of Four-Year-Old LeGend Taliferro arrested

KC man, 22, charged in fatal shooting of 4-year-old Legend as he slept

For Immediate Release

Aug. 13, 2020

A 22-year-old Kansas City man has been charged in the fatal shooting of 4-year-old Legend M. Taliferro, who was asleep at home the morning of June 29, 2020, when a shot was fired into his residence and struck him, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.

Ryson Ellis, dob: 7/21/1998, faces felony charges of Murder 2^nd Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and two counts of Armed Criminal Action.*

According to court records, Kansas City police responded in the early morning hours of June 29, 2020, to the 1600 block of Bushman in the Citadel Apartments regarding a shooting. Someone had fired gunshots into apartment 123 from an area behind the apartment, shooting through a privacy fence and a sliding glass door. The victim was the young child, Legend M. Taliferro, who was asleep in the residence. A witness told police that the suspect had a “fade cut” and facial hair on the chin. This generally matches the description of the defendant.

A woman, according to the court records, was in the apartment at the time of the shooting and she told police she had a son with the defendant and he had assaulted her a few days before the shooting. The witness later received threatening social media messages from the defendant. The assault caused members of her family to confront the defendant. One of the family members is the father of Legend Taliferro and he resided at the apartment where the young victim was later shot. A suspect vehicle was captured on surveillance video from the night of the shooting and police determined it was a rental vehicle. Rental car records confirmed it was rented on June 23 and not returned until July 3. A witness who stated she drove the vehicle the night of the fatal shooting said the defendant got out of the vehicle near apartment 123, then she heard gun shots. He came running back to the car. She said she didn’t find out until later someone had been killed.

Prosecutors requested the defendant be held without bond.

22 July: Why Operation Legend from the White House:

In New York City, over 300 people were shot in the last month alone.  A 277 — at least — percent increase over the same period of a year ago.  Murders this year have spiked 27 percent in Philadelphia and 94 percent in Minneapolis compared to the same period in 2019.

Perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of Chicago — a city I know very well.  At least 414 people have been murdered in the city this year, a roughly 50 percent increase over last year.  More than 1,900 people have been shot.  These are numbers that aren’t even to be believed.

Yesterday alone, 23 people were shot in Chicago, including at least 15 who were shot in a merciless onslaught of gunfire outside of a funeral home.  Sixty-three people were shot in the city this past weekend, and at least twelve people were killed.  Over the Fourth of July weekend, nearly 80 people were shot, and 17 were killed.  Over Father’s Day weekend, 104 people were shot, and 15 were killed, including 5 young children.  And the last weekend in May saw the city’s deadliest day on record: 18 murders in 24 hours.

An African American father of three was killed while walking into a store to pay his cellphone bill.  A 13-year-old girl was killed when a stray bullet came through the window of her home and hit her in the neck in the presence of her family.

On Independence Day, 14-year-old Vernado Jones, Jr., was playing basketball with friends in a Chicago park when he was senselessly killed in a massacre that left eight people dead or wounded.

DOJ: 14 August, the expansion of Operation Legend was announced in Indianapolis.  Operation Legend is a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight violent crime.  The Operation was first launched on July 8 in Kansas City, MO., and expanded on July 22, 2020, to Chicago and Albuquerque, to Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee on July 29, 2020, and to St. Louis and Memphis on August 6, 2020.

Operation Legend is named in honor of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept early in the morning of June 29 in Kansas City. 

Statement from Attorney General William P. Barr on the Arrest of Kansas City Man Charged with the Murder of Four-Year-Old LeGend Taliferro

Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement in response to the arrest of a Kansas City man accused of murdering four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, after whom the Department of Justice’s Operation Legend is named.

“On June 29, 2020, four-year-old LeGend Taliferro was killed by gunfire while asleep in his bed in Kansas City, Missouri.  His senseless death, which is part of an alarming increase in violent crime this summer, led the Department of Justice to launch Operation Legend.  As part of that initiative, we have sent greater numbers of federal law enforcement agents, investigators, and analysts to work closely with state and local law enforcement partners to remove violent criminals from the streets of key American cities.

Today’s arrest of LeGend Taliferro’s suspected murderer marks a significant step forward in his case and illustrates the potential of Operation Legend more broadly.  The arrest and state charges resulted from cooperation among Kansas City police officers, the FBI, and U.S. Marshals.  This development is a model for joint efforts to solve crimes and reduce violence in other cities.  I thank the state and local law enforcement officers who helped make possible this important step in bringing justice to LeGend, to his family, and to his community.  

Although LeGend’s suspected murderer has been arrested, Operation Legend will go on.  Inspired by this success, federal law enforcement will continue working tirelessly to support state and local partners in our shared mission to keep the American people safe and enforce the rule of law.”

Operation Legend Expanded to Memphis and St. Louis

Today, the expansion of Operation Legend was announced in Memphis and St. Louis. Operation Legend is a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight violent crime. The Operation was first launched on July 8 in Kansas City, MO., and expanded on July 22, 2020, to Chicago and Albuquerque, and to Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee on July 29, 2020.

Operation Legend is named in honor of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept early in the morning of June 29 in Kansas City. 

“The most basic responsibility of government is to protect the safety of our citizens,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Today, we have extended Operation Legend to Memphis and St. Louis, two cities experiencing increases in violent crime that no resident of those cities should have to accept as part of everyday life. For decades, the Department of Justice has achieved significant success when utilizing our anti-violent crime task forces and federal law enforcement agents to enforce federal law and assist American cities that are experiencing upticks in violent crime. The Department of Justice’s assets will supplement local law enforcement efforts, as we work together to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets.”

As part of Operation Legend, Attorney General Barr directed the ATF, FBI, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service to significantly increase resources into Memphis and St. Louis in the coming weeks to help state and local officials fight high levels of violent crime, particularly gun violence. 

Memphis is currently experiencing a significant increase in violent crime, with homicides currently up more than 49 percent, reported gun crime up 23 percent, and aggravated assault shootings up over 19 percent over 2019. Similarly, homicides are up in St. Louis nearly 34 percent and non-fatal shootings are up over 13 percent.

In Memphis, the Department of Justice will supplement state and local law enforcement agencies by sending 16 federal investigators to the city on temporary assignment for 90 days, followed by 24 permanent agent assignments from the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Homeland Security Investigations. Under the leadership of Michael Dunavant, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, these investigators will complement the work already underway by existing joint federal, state and local task forces focused on combatting violent gangs, gun crime, and drug trafficking organizations. 

The Bureau of Justice Assistance will make available $200,000 to support Operation Legend’s violent crime reduction efforts in Memphis in addition to the prior BJA grant funding award of $1.4 million to Shelby County to provide manpower, technology, equipment, and support for the sustained efforts Legend Task Force, including overtime funding for the Multi-Agency Gang Unit (MGU) and partner agency officers; a prosecutor for the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office to handle operation arrests vertically through the state criminal justice system to ensure that arrests are followed by strategic prosecution; vehicles for MGU operations; and technological solutions to enhance investigation and prosecution of violent offenders.

The COPS Office has also made approximately $9.8 million available to the Memphis Police Department to fund the hiring of 50 officers.

The Department has also provided assistance to Memphis through the Joint Law Enforcement Operations (JLEO) fund to assist reimbursement of local law enforcement serving as federal task force officers with FBI, ATF, DEA, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The city will receive $100,000 from ATF to help local agencies defray costs associated with installing or maintaining shot detection technology.

In St. Louis, under the leadership of Jeffrey Jensen, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, federal agents from ATF, DEA, FBI, and USMS, along with approximately 50 additional agents from Department of Homeland Security, will work cooperatively with the St. Louis Police Department to combat gun and gang violence, as well as assist the U.S. Marshals Service in violent fugitive apprehension efforts.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance will make available $1 million to support local law enforcement in shot spotter responses and violent crime investigations in St. Louis. With Department of Justice funding, the city is also receiving two Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to support violent crime prosecutions.