A months-long investigation into the the shooting death of a Kansas City-area sports reporter ended this week with the arrest of a man suspected of killing him.
Dennis Sharkey Jr., 50, was found with a single gunshot wound in his car on January 10. Platte County deputies said they believed that Sharkey, a sports reporter for the Platte County Citizen, was returning from covering an event at the time, KCTV reported.
The sheriff’s office announced on Tuesday that they had identified and interviewed a possible suspect, and on Wednesday, Ruslan Husynov was charged with second degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon, and two counts of armed criminal action.
According to the Platte County Landmark, court documents say that a 911 call came in shortly after 7 p.m. on January 10 from a couple who had been traveling southbound on Interstate 29. They reported seeing a dark colored car and a white car coming to a stop in the far right lane and forcing them to stop also. As they pulled around the stopped vehicles, they saw the driver of the dark-colored car get out with a gun in his hand, pointing it at the white car. As they pulled away, they heard a gunshot.
Responding deputies found a 2019 Chevrolet Spark crashed with Sharkey inside. He was taken to North Kansas City Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Court documents reveal how investigators used Sharkey’s cell phone, found in his vehicle, to track other cell phones in the area around the time of the incident. A search warrant identified a phone belonging to Huseynov in the area at almost the exact same time as Sharkey’s, and they reviewed surveillance video that corroborated the 911 callers’ report.
In his interview on Tuesday, Huseynov confirmed his phone number but denied owning a gun. A subsequent search warrant at his home found a 9mm Stoeger pistol in a safe in his bedroom. Testing by the Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory confirmed that a shell casing found at the scene of the shooting and the bullet taken from Sharkey’s body matched test fires from the gun found in Huseynov’s safe.
Huseynov is being held in the Platte County Jail without bond.
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[Featured image: Dennis Sharkey Jr/KCTV screenshot and Ruslan Huseynov/Platte County Sheriff’s Office]