Missing puzzle piece: Family mourns Robert Alaniz, killed in KCK’s first homicide of 2022
The sound of five TVs coming from the bedroom. FaceTime calls with their mom. The Halloween parties.
Alicia Alaniz lists the things she will miss about her older brother Robert Alaniz.
“He loved everyone for who they were,” she said. “If you were sad, he would be sad with you.”
But as she looks back and thinks about different moments from the 41 years of her brother’s life, she — along with the rest of the family — are also processing and grieving the end of it. He was shot and killed Jan. 10 at his house in a neighborhood on South 37th Street, just south of Shawnee Drive. The police department did not respond Friday to questions about the homicide.
When Kansas City, Kansas, police officers arrived, they found Robert Alaniz inside the home and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His death was the city’s first homicide of 2022.
“I’m going to have to remember that moment for the rest of my life,” Alicia Alaniz said.
Robert Alaniz was a protective older brother, a kid who grew up loving scary movies and Halloween parties because he was born two days before the holiday. He was obsessed with anything Halloween-themed, including classic horror franchises like “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.” Once, he made his mom buy him a sweater just like Freddy Krueger.
His passions didn’t stop there. A huge Kansas City Chiefs fan, he watched every Chiefs game on five TVs in his bedroom, with all of them synced together.
“’Those are my babies,’” his sister recalled him telling anyone who asked.
“Every. Single. Play. I mean, it was like Arrowhead Stadium,” she said. “I’ve never even been there before, but just hearing my brother cheer, it gave me an insight on how it would be like if I was actually there.”
Alicia Alaniz was the only girl of four. Robert Alaniz, who was the second oldest, was almost like her protector, she said. He always wanted to know what she was doing, who she was hanging out with and why she was hanging out with them. And his vigilance didn’t stop as she got older. When Alicia Alaniz had children, it was him telling her not to put the kids down on the table because they might fall off.
And it was Robert Alaniz who made it a priority to take care of their mom in the more-than three years she had been in remission from Stage 3 gastric cancer. Though their mom had surgery to remove the tumor, the cancer ended up spreading to her lymph nodes and is now in her bone marrow, Alicia Alaniz said. Their mom gets treatment every week and after, her appetite increases. Robert always made sure to plan the meals.
“’Mom’s getting her treatment today, what are we eating for dinner?’” she remembered Robert Alaniz telling her stepdad. “’She has to eat good.’”
Robert Alaniz worked at Carter-Waters Construction Materials for 10 years but after suffering a hip injury and undergoing hip replacement surgery, he couldn’t work anymore. He received Social Security benefits and lived with his mom. He would take a break from playing video games and massage her feet.
Alicia Alaniz has been busy planning her brother’s memorial service. It’s scheduled to be held Monday — her 32nd birthday. It’s also the day after the Kansas City Chiefs play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Wild Card-round game, which will be at Arrowhead at 7:15 p.m.
“We didn’t really let him know how much he was a staple to the family. I think because we were so used to him being an accessory to the family,” Alicia said. “He was just the puzzle piece right in his exact spot. But we never really knew how much that piece was worth.”
