A Lee’s Summit man is charged with four felony counts after allegedly shooting a woman he’d been on a date with in both her legs after his advances were rejected.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours Thursday, after the two had been on a dinner date on the Country Club Plaza.
Belal S. Rhaimeh, 25, is charged with two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday evening.
According to court documents, the victim gave this account:
Rhaimeh had been to dinner at Zocalo with the woman, whom he’d known since childhood.
The woman had been trying to get away from Rhaimeh after observing his increasingly erratic and intimidating behavior.
Rhaimeh and the woman left Zocalo in Rhaimeh’s vehicle, and Rhaimeh was driving when he pulled out a gun and began shooting out his window.
Police obtained surveillance footage showing Rhaimeh allegedly firing three shots into the Phoenix Family building, an organization that supports people in low-income housing.
Rhaimeh then took the woman to Dempsey’s in Westport, where the woman asked friends for help, but “no one of the group would help her,” and then the friends left, police wrote.
Needing a ride back to her vehicle, she again entered Rhaimeh’s vehicle.
He asked her if they were going back to her place. She said she had to work in the morning and only wanted a ride back to her car.
Rhaimeh became angry at that point, according to court documents. The woman fled his vehicle and a nearby couple helped the victim by allowing her to take shelter in their vehicle.
Rhaimeh left the scene, and the woman tried to leave in her own vehicle.
But as she was trying to leave, Rhaimeh appeared in his vehicle and blocked her in.
He then trailed her as she drove “all over the Plaza trying to lose Rhaimeh,” police wrote.
Rhaimeh then pulled even with the victim’s vehicle and she heard a “pop, pop.”
She suffered non-life-threatening injuries to her legs, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
After being shot, she fled her vehicle, climbed a fence and asked for help at a bar.
Rhaimeh admitted to police that he was with the victim but denied arguing with or shooting her.
His bond was set at $50,000.