Suspect in AMBER Alert charged on several domestic violence counts

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A day after turning himself in to police Thursday night, a 21-year-old man was charged with six felonies in connection to an event that led to an Amber Alert on Wednesday.

According to court records, officers were dispatched to the area of Belmont and Gladstone Boulevard, where a witness said Markelv Avery threatened the victim with a gun and choked and assaulted her.

Police said on Friday, Jan. 13, 2023, Avery confronted a woman he’d been in a romantic relationship with for three years outside her house at 8:30 p.m. He exited his vehicle with a large black gun in his right hand and a pistol in his left hand, pointing it at the driver’s side window of the black Honda the woman and a friend were sitting in.

“Unlock the door or I’m going to shoot,” Avery is alleged to have told the women. Later, when Avery pulled up to the victim’s location at a high rate of speed, he pointed a handgun at the victim and stated “If you pull off I will air this b---- out.”

After Avery eventually got into the woman’s car, court documents allege that he began to strangle the woman with both hands. When the woman attempted to pull the 21-year-old man off of her, she pulled out some of his dreads by accident. Avery responded by striking the woman on the right side of her face and head several times.

On Wednesday, an Amber Alert was issued when Avery took an 8-month-old child. The child was returned safely on Wednesday, and Avery turned himself in to police on Thursday night.