Court records say a couple had been sleeping in an SUV before an argument outside a house with a basement studio turned deadly.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The homicide case against Demario McGee grew out of a basic problem described in police records: where he and Katrice Williams, who had been sleeping in a gold Chevrolet Traverse, would stay for the night.
That detail gives the case its urgency and its shape. Prosecutors say McGee, 37, shot Williams, 32, outside a residence in south Kansas City after the two argued when she would not come inside a house where he had gone to record music. He now faces second-degree murder and weapons charges, and the publicly released documents depict a dispute framed not around a party or a public confrontation but around exhaustion, limited options and a vehicle that had become the couple’s temporary shelter.
McGee told detectives that he and Williams were homeless and had lately been sleeping in the Traverse, according to the probable cause statement. On March 22, he said, they went to a house on East 62nd Street because he planned to record in a basement studio. Williams stayed in the vehicle as the night went on. McGee told police he stepped out several times during the session to talk with her and tried to persuade her to come indoors. His hope, according to the filing, was that they might be able to sleep in the house. She did not agree. The records say that refusal became the point of friction between them as the hour grew later and the options for where to spend the night narrowed.
Investigators say the argument escalated outside the SUV. The probable cause statement says Williams told McGee she was going to leave. McGee then told detectives he felt emasculated by the way she spoke to him. According to the filing, he said he began firing into the air to scare her and claimed the gun may have gone off as he raised it. Prosecutors are treating the shooting as a knowing killing, not a harmless warning shot gone wrong. The weapon described in the police paperwork is a 9 mm handgun, and one of the charges accuses McGee of unlawfully exhibiting the firearm in an angry or threatening manner in the presence of other people. The records do not explain whether Williams was trying to drive away, walk off or simply end the argument when she was shot.
Others at the house filled in the edges of the scene. People inside the basement area told police they heard arguing followed by three sounds of gunshots. One witness said that after the shots, McGee walked away toward the back of the property, disappeared briefly and then returned. A different witness reported seeing a man in a light-colored hoodie running toward the rear of the property after the gunfire. Several witnesses also told police that McGee sometimes carried a 9 mm handgun. Officers were called to the residence just after 3 a.m. and found Williams in the backyard outside the Traverse with gunshot wounds to the neck. Paramedics pronounced her dead at 3:18 a.m. Police also found McGee there and described him as erratic when they took him into custody.
Prosecutors moved quickly to formalize the case. Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson announced charges on March 23, saying McGee faced second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. Court records released with the charging announcement say McGee admitted he ran two or three houses east after the shooting and threw the firearm. A judge ordered him held on a $250,000 cash-only bond. The public record so far leaves several questions unanswered, including whether the gun has been recovered, whether there is surveillance footage from nearby homes and how much forensic evidence will be introduced beyond witness testimony and McGee’s statement. Those gaps are likely to matter as the case advances from charging papers to hearings and possible trial preparation.
Viewed through the lens of the shelter problem described in the police file, the story becomes less about one burst of gunfire in isolation and more about the conditions around it. The vehicle was not merely parked at the scene; it appears to have been the couple’s sleeping place. The house was not just a backdrop; it was a possible place to get indoors for the night. The recording studio was not only a detail of lifestyle; it was the reason the pair came to the property. The prosecution alleges that in the space between those strained circumstances and an argument over what would happen next, Williams was killed beside the same SUV that had been serving as home.
The case stood at the charging stage on April 15, 2026, with McGee in jail on cash bond and future proceedings expected to test how much of the state’s case will turn on the couple’s living situation, witness timing and the defendant’s own words to police.
Author note: Last updated April 15, 2026.