KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Jackson County judge on Tuesday sentenced a 20-year-old Kansas City man to 18 years in prison for the deadly shooting in August 2019 of 25-year-old Erin Langhofer.
Deon’te Copkney pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder and armed criminal action charges.
The Judge sentenced Copkney to 18 years on the second-degree murder convictions and 3 years on the armed criminal action conviction. The judge set the sentenced to run concurrently.
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Police were called to the area of 18th and Main streets around 10 p.m. Aug. 3, 2019, and found Langhofer shot. She was an innocent bystander and hadn’t been involved in any kind of altercation before shots were fired.
Off-duty KCPD officers began chasing three men, including Copkney, who fled from the scene after the shooting. They were ordered to stop running, and police said Copkney dropped a handgun before lying on the ground.
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Court records say ballistics tests showed the gun he dropped fired the shell casings found near the scene.
Copkney told detectives he and two friends got into a fight with another group near the food trucks. After the fight broke up, he said he fired shots “into the air” and “emptied his clip,” court records say.
Detectives noted that evidence from the scene — considering bullets struck Langhofer and significant property — contradicts Copkney’s claim that he fired into the air. He told police was the only one who fired.
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