A Missouri man is behind bars after a Memorial Day shooting in a grocery store parking lot left a mother and grandmother dead and a teenage worker injured.
Allen Prince, 27, is accused of opening fire outside Cosentino’s Price Chopper in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, a small city about 30 miles southeast of Kansas City.
The shooting happened just before 4:30 p.m. on Memorial Day in the store’s parking lot along Missouri Route 7.
Police say the violence killed 45-year-old Amy Coon, a local woman remembered as a mother, grandmother, daughter and friend. A 16-year-old grocery store employee, identified by his first name, Ayden, was also shot twice while collecting shopping carts in the parking lot, according to a GoFundMe.
Ayden was taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital, where he was recovering in the ICU in stable condition.
“This was his first job,” his mother told KCTV. “He just started working there in March. I’m hoping that it’s not going to traumatize him from wanting to go back to work.”
Coon had been shopping at the Price Chopper just moments before the shooting. She was standing near her own vehicle when she was shot. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tommy Wright said Coon was much more than a victim in a criminal case.
“Amy’s not just a victim,” Wright said at a press conference. “She was a daughter. She was a mother. She was a grandmother, and she was somebody who cared deeply for her family, and her family cared deeply for her.”
Loved ones also paid tribute to Coon online.
“Aunt Amy believed in me and my future,” her niece wrote in a Facebook post, according to The Kansas City Star. “She truly was a light in this evil and cruel world we live in. I never saw her without a smile on her face.”
Prince has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of assault, and three counts of armed criminal action, according to the Cass County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Police said that after the first shots rang out, two armed citizens approached Prince. Authorities said Prince then turned the gun on himself and shot himself in the head with a bolt-action Winchester .243-caliber rifle.
“Two gentlemen from the Pleasant Hill area, who were armed, had the courage to approach this suspect, who then turned the gun on himself,” Wright said. “I applaud them. I appreciate people like that being in our community.”
The police chief said the men likely helped prevent more violence.
Prince survived and is being treated for his injuries.
Authorities said he was already facing legal trouble at the time of the shooting. He had been due in court on June 3 for a hearing related to a harassment charge filed in September 2025.
In that earlier case, a family member allegedly claimed Prince had threatened to “blow” someone’s head off if she did not “shut up.” Court records also reportedly said he would wake in the middle of the night yelling and banging on walls.
Prince denied making threats in that case and was released in October on a recognizance bond with conditions that included not possessing firearms, avoiding harmful contact with others and obeying all laws.
Coon’s death marks Pleasant Hill’s first homicide in at least 20 years.
“This is not an everyday occurrence in Pleasant Hill,” Wright said. “In fact, it looks like it’s every 20 years or so. And we hope that we can even make that last a little longer this time.”
Its time to bring back the death penalty! Enough is enough! He will only get out on parole and do it again. He killed an innocent person and shot another. You can’t trust the system to rehabilitate them. Time to rid him from society.
This POS couldn’t even kill himself properly and now we have to waste taxpayer money to keep this POS alive and in jail for the rest of his life.