‘He just ran towards the baby’: Man Dies Saving 2-Year-Old From Gunfire at Crowded Picnic

Venus Upadhayaya
By Venus Upadhayaya
April 28, 2019US News
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‘He just ran towards the baby’: Man Dies Saving 2-Year-Old From Gunfire at Crowded Picnic
Crime scene with police tape. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

A Kansas City father died while trying to save a friend’s two-year-old great-grandson from gunfire. The shots came from several men walking down the street who aimed fire at a picnic crowd that was gathered next door.

Lamar Montez Sharp, 31, was shot twice in the head, three times total.  “He just ran towards the baby, and that’s when he was shot,” Sharp’s mother Charlotte Barner told Fox4KC.

He died a day later in hospital, according to Kansas City Police Department spokesman Capt. Tim Hernandez, as reported by The Kansas City Star.

Three other people were also shot but their injuries were not life-threatening.

Earlier that day, Sharp had stopped by his childhood babysitter’s home near 53rd and Michigan in Kansas City. She is an elderly woman and he visited her every week.

“That’s no surprise to me. That’s just who he was,” Sharp’s aunt, Lisa Barner said.

A huge picnic crowd had gathered next door and it suddenly started raining bullets. Police don’t know why this group of men suddenly came and fired at the picnic crowd.

Everyone ran inside to save their lives but Sharp ran outside to protect the baby.

“Just trying to save a baby and that was his instincts. When it comes to kids, he’s always been a protector,” his mother, Charlotte Barner said.

The baby was saved but Sharp succumbed to the bullets, which took his life just five days before his 32nd birthday.

“It’s just sad and unbelievable. It’s been very devastating. I haven’t been able to go back to work. I mean I can’t work a full day. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and to get that phone call—it’s just so hard on me,” his mother said.

Sharp was an entrepreneur and had been restoring homes the past six years.

“He bought a couple of properties and rehabbed a couple that people are living in right now and he was able to assist on Section 8 and all,” his mother said. “Lamar also had a couple more properties that he was starting to rehab. He always wanted to start his own business. He was just a great, all around person who helped everybody.”

Sharp’s mom described him as an admirable human being. “He was a wonderful son, a wonderful brother and a wonderful father. He was just all that in one. He loved his family,” she said.

Sharp’s 13-year-old daughter survives him. “He loved his daughter to the point of no end. She was the jewel of his life,” his mom said.

You can call AdHoc or The TIPs hotline if you know anything about who killed Lamar Sharp.

Posted by Corey's Network, Inc. on Wednesday, April 24, 2019

An obituary for Sharp on Meaningful Funerals describes him as an unselfish person devoted to his family and friends. “He enjoyed barbequing, traveling, and working on cars. He loved showering his family with jewelry from Kay’s and gifts,” the obituary said.

In another case of heroism, a California widow and mother of five died while trying to save her children and her pastor after a fire broke out inside her house on Feb. 7, according to officials.

The fire started just before midnight and quickly engulfed the two-story house in Bakersfield.

Kristina Stratton, 38, was outside the house but ran inside to try to save her children.

The four children in the house were able to escape by jumping from the second-story window, but Stratton perished inside. The children were injured but survived.

Pastor Angelo Frazier told ABC 23 that Stratton ran in to try to save her children but couldn’t get out.

According to a GoFundMe fundraiser started by a community member, Stratton was a widow. She had home-schooled three of her children who are 8, 9, and 10 years old respectively.

NTD Photo
Kristina Stratton and three of her children in a file photo. (Stratton Family)
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