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A Missouri man has been arrested and charged in connection with a Jan. 10 road-rage shooting that left a former sports reporter dead.
Ruslan Huseynov, 34, is charged with second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in connection with Dennis Sharkey Jr.’s death, according to Platte County records.
The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department initially received a 911 call around 7 p.m. on Jan. 10 from a man and his girlfriend, who had been driving behind Huseynov’s and Sharkey’s vehicles on I-29, driving southbound in the right-hand lane.
Huseynov’s vehicle was at the front with Sharkey’s directly behind his, and the witnesses behind Sharkey, according to a probable cause statement filed in Platte County.
The witnesses described seeing the suspect and victim’s vehicles come to a stop in front of them, forcing them to stop on the interstate, as well, the probable cause statement says.
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The witnesses then pulled into the middle lane and continued southbound on I-29, but as they were driving by the two stopped cars, they saw the suspect, who appeared to be of “Middle Eastern or Italian” descent, in the first car get out of his vehicle with a gun.
“They noticed the man with the gun point it at the victim’s car and then fled the scene. They heard a gunshot as they continued southbound on I-29 and called 911,” the probable cause statement reads.
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First responders located the victim’s vehicle crashed into a fence on I-29 with the victim, identified as Sharkey, inside. He had a gunshot wound, and authorities transported him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m.
Authorities linked “suspicious” cellphone data from the area of the crash to Huseynov and found bullet casings near the same scene.
Police believe, based on cellular tower data records and multiple views of traffic patterns at the time and place of the crime, that Huseynov’s cellphone “was in a vehicle which came to a stop on the interstate” at the time of Sharkey’s death, the probable cause statement says.
A search warrant executed on Huseynov’s cellphone put him in the Platte County area on the afternoon of Jan. 10 and traced the 34-year-old to a nearby liquor store that day.
He was pulled over for a traffic violation in March and arrested on an unrelated charge in June. At the time of the June arrest, he provided his cellphone information, and police questioned him about the Jan. 10 shooting on I-29.
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“I showed him a picture of a hand showing a 9mm magazine which contained 9mm ammunition and which had been discovered in Huseynov’s iCloud account pusuant to the search warrant,” the probable cause affidavit states. “Huseynov admitted the hand was his and the picture was taken inside his house. Huseynov stated a friend bought the gun to his house in an attempt to sell it to him for $500.”
Police then executed a search warrant at Huseynov’s residence and discovered the 9mm gun, 9mm ammunition and 9mm magazine in a safe in the suspect’s bedroom. The bullet recovered from Sharkey’s body and shell casings located at the scene matched the items recovered from the suspect’s home, police said.
A GoFundMe for Sharkey, titled “Honor Dennis: Support His Mom in Her Time of Need,” described Sharkey as “not only a beloved son, cousin, and friend, but also a dedicated caretaker to his mother, who is now left to navigate this unimaginable heartbreak.”
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An obituary for the 50-year-old victim states that he “worked for a variety of news publications in the Missouri and Kansas regions.”
“During his journalistic career he created the Northland Buzz with his friend Cody Snapp and covered sports for the North Kansas City School District from 2022-2024. Most recently, Dennis served as the reporter and photographer for all sports for the Platte County Citizen,” the obituary says.
Sharkey’s “most recent job was at SAS Merchandising as a representative for Tyson’s Foods.”
“Dennis loved sports, particularly the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals and the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats. Dennis was very passionate about his relationship with his maternal grandmother Edna, and loved gardening,” the obituary says.
Huseynov is being held in the Platte County Detention Center without bond. He did not have a defense attorney listed in public records databases at the time of publication.
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