‘Our streets’: Suburban twins charged in KC drive-by that killed teen, paralyzed another

Twin brothers from Johnson County face criminal charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with a shooting that left an 18-year-old dead and another man paralyzed in Kansas City’s Northland on Sunday afternoon.

Isaiah Z. Hernandez and Isaac G. Hernandez, both 20 years old from Shawnee, were charged with the crimes in Clay County Circuit Court following an investigation led by Kansas City police. Both were arrested and booked Monday in the Johnson County jail.

The Hernandez brothers are accused of being responsible for the killing of 18-year-old Dakota Rogers and the severe injury of his friend after they were shot with an assault rifle in broad daylight in the Crestview neighborhood. Their bullet-riddled car continued on for a few blocks before crashing into other vehicles on North Oak Trafficway near a busy commercial district.

Charging documents filed in Clay County on Thursday outline a chance encounter between the two gunshot victims and the alleged killers, which ended after the victims’ car was fired upon in traffic.

As of Thursday night, booking logs showed the Hernandez brothers were still in Johnson County jail. Prosecutors in Clay County requested each be transferred to Missouri and held on $1 million bonds.

‘These are our streets’

Police officers were dispatched Sunday around 3:30 p.m.. to a reported shooting near the intersection of Vivion Avenue and North Oak Trafficway. They found that two gunshot victims were inside a 2003 Toyota Corolla that had crashed.

In the front passenger seat was Rogers, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver, identified in court documents as M.N., was transported by ambulance to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

M.N. was treated for severe injuries, including a severed spinal cord in the area of his mid-back. He also had gunshot wounds to his right shoulder and chest.

During a police interview, the surviving gunshot victim said he and Rogers were shot while driving on North Oak Trafficway by two men they had first seen at a red light.

M.N. told detectives he picked up Rogers from his house and the pair drove to downtown Kansas City for the fall festival. They were then invited to meet a friend at a park in the Northland.

As they were en route, waiting for a red light to change, two men pulled up alongside them in a silver Volkswagen. Everyone had the windows down.

The men in the silver car engaged M.N. and Rogers in conversation, asking why they were driving in that part of town, according to charging documents.

The men told them “these are our streets” and that M.N. and Rogers should “stop trying to be hard,” the surviving victim told detectives. M.N. recalled saying in response that they were both from Parkville and were not trying to be “hard.”

That’s when one of the men allegedly pointed an AR-style weapon at them from the open driver’s side window. Rogers asked: “Is that a real gun?” before they drove away, the gunshot victim recalled.

M.N. and Rogers were followed on the highway as they drove past Charles E. Wheeler Airport, exited onto Briarcliff Parkway, and then headed north on North Oak Trafficway.

The paralyzed gunshot victim told police he “thought they were going to leave them alone” at one point. But then he saw their car enter the left lane behind him, and the shooting started.

Rogers lost consciousness. M.N. said he lost feeling in his legs, and could not press the brake pedal as they approached the red light at Vivion Avenue and North Oak Trafficway.

“MN said he steered as best he could, but he ultimately collided with other vehicles,” a detective wrote in court documents.

Tracked to Shawnee

Kansas City crime scene investigators were called out to two locations: One at the site of the crash and a second in the 4400 block of North Oak Trafficway, where the shooting apparently unfolded.

The Toyota Camry, in which Rogers and M.N. were traveling, had several bullet holes. Near the shooting site, three spent casings from a rifle were discovered.

Investigators also found pieces of black plastic, including one that had a Volkswagen emblem on the front. A driver’s side mirror was also found in the roadway that contained a specific part number for Volkswagen.

Surveillance cameras also captured video footage and license plate readings of both vehicles, and detectives estimated based on audio recordings that about 10 gunshots were fired in quick succession. The license plate on a silver sedan, matching the description provided by the surviving victim, was found to have recently been sold from a car dealership in Shawnee.

Detectives brought that information to the car dealership. Sales records showed Isaiah Hernandez as a co-signer for a Volkswagen Passat with that license plate, according to court records. At the time the car was purchased, days before the shooting, the dealership owner told police the vehicle was undamaged.

Police officers were sent to the address of the first registered owner, the Hernandez brothers’ grandfather in Shawnee. In the driveway they found a vehicle that had damage on the driver’s side that fit with the debris, including the missing mirror, that was discovered at the crime scene.

The grandfather told police that his grandsons lived with him at his residence. He also told them he returned home from Wichita on Sunday afternoon — the day of the shooting — and that his grandsons and the car he recently helped purchase were not present at the time, according to court documents.

Detectives obtained a search warrant through the Johnson County District Court for the Volkswagen. During that search, authorities allege a bullet fragment was discovered on the floorboard of the rear driver’s side. It was unclear from available court records whether that fragment had been analyzed or if any other conclusions had been drawn based on that finding.

Hernandez brothers charged

Isaac and Isaiah Hernandez were booked in the Johnson County jail on suspicion of murder and other crimes stemming from the shooting. Neither agreed to speak with detectives outside the presence of a defense lawyer, according to court records.

In Clay County Circuit Court, Isaac Hernandez is faced with charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder or first-degree assault, aiding and abetting a firearm violation involving a motor vehicle, and three counts of armed criminal action.

Meanwhile, Isaiah Hernandez is charged as an accessory to first-degree murder, accessory to attempted murder or assault, aiding and abetting a firearm violation involving a motor vehicle, and three counts of armed criminal action.

Isaiah Hernandez was also convicted of first-degree assault in September 2020 in Jackson County, following a guilty plea, and received a seven-year suspended sentence for that crime.

Under Missouri law, the most serious penalties stem from the first-degree murder charge. Defendants convicted of first-degree murder are eligible for the death penalty, and receive a minimum sentence of a life prison term.

Court documents did not list a defense attorney for either brother as of Thursday night.