A 24-year-old NPR reporter that was shot while sitting inside of her apartment in Kansas City, Missouri last week has died, police said. Aviva Okeson-Haberman was reportedly struck by a bullet that pierced one of the windows of her first-floor apartment in the Santa Fe neighborhood.
Okeson-Haberman was on life support for several days before she passed away. KCPD said they are now investigating the case as a homicide.
She joined KCUR in June 2019 as the Missouri politics and government reporter, having interned at the station a year earlier. Okeson-Haberman was transitioning into her new role at the station covering social issues and criminal justice.
“She was just relentless in the pursuit of the truth,” said news director Lisa Rodriguez. “She was going to change people’s lives in this beat.”
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver expressed shock and sadness on Twitter Monday.
“Her passion for justice and truth-seeking was palpable; her commitment to the community was inspiring; and her journalistic ability at such a young age was impressive,” he wrote. “I’m heartbroken I won’t get another phone call with her on the other end.”
Aviva graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 2019. While there, she garnered fistfuls of awards, including the Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting for her investigation of Missouri’s elder abuse hotline.
“I’m heartbroken that I won’t have another opportunity to make her a pizza while we sat in my backyard talking about life,” Rodriguez said. “I’m heartbroken I won’t hear another story pitch or work through another hours-long edit. I will miss her so much.”
Aviva is survived by her mother and father, her two younger sisters and her maternal grandparents.
