‘Loving and bright’: KCK 20-year-old killed when stray bullet entered her apartment

Just before her eighth birthday, Jadah Clark walked through Matt and Heather Froggatte’s door in rural Franklin County, Kansas.

The couple’s first foster child, she seemed just as nervous as they felt. But eventually young Clark eased into life in her new home — eagerly lending her siblings a hand and befriending everyone in the tight-knit community, from children to seniors.

“Grandmas and grandpas were walking up to her, and she had them around their heartstrings in no time at all,” Matt Froggatte said. “She was just so loving and bright.”

The week after she arrived, the Froggattes threw together a last-minute birthday party and invited the girl’s family over to bob for apples. Matt Froggatte laughed as he remembered the kids squealing and splashing while they buried their faces in the water tank, popping out with a prize between their teeth.

When Clark went back to live with her mother two years later, the families kept in close contact. She’d visit on holidays, during the summer, and text the Froggattes occasionally. The couple would go on to adopt two children, which they attribute to their overwhelmingly positive experience with Clark.

Not long ago, Matt Froggatte told Clark over Facebook Messenger not to be so down on herself. She struggled at times to recognize the beauty everyone else saw in her so plainly, he said.

That was the last conversation the two ever had. On the afternoon of April 14, Clark was inside her Kansas City, Kansas, apartment when gunfire erupted nearby. A stray bullet entered her unit near 13th Street and Washington Boulevard and struck her, according to a statement from police.

“It’s definitely one of those sad, sad situations,” Nancy Chartrand, a spokeswoman for the KCKPD said.

“Split seconds, movements, could have changed the outcome.”

Clark was taken to the hospital and placed on a ventilator. While she lay in her hospital bed, Matt Froggatte knelt beside her and told her how proud he was. His first foster child who now lay incapacitated in a hospital had decided before the shooting to become an organ donor.

“It was typical Jadah fashion,” he said. “To the very end, she would give herself to anyone — it didn’t matter what color you were or how old you were. It didn’t matter.”

Clark’s passing devastated her friends and family, including her mother, who Matt Froggatte said was her “best friend, to put it mildly.”

Their grief is only compounded by the fact that Clark was killed in a place where she should have been safe, her own home — something Matt Froggatte said that should alarm everyone in the Kansas City metro.

“I don’t know what, but we’ve got to do better,” he said. “It’s simply heartbreaking.”

‘Everyone loved her’

Bryant Tucker has coached dozens of players over the years, but he’ll always remember the small forward from J.C. Harmon High School who played a conference game with a broken hand — and led the team to victory.

Clark won a “Player of the Week” award from a local clothing business for her performance in that game. A 2020 graduate, Clark was one of the hardest-working players Tucker said he’s ever worked with.

The appreciation for Clark and her abilities extended to her teammates.

“She would do anything she could for people,” he said. “She was one person that I never had to worry about getting into trouble.”

While Clark would bring her A-game on the court, Tucker said she was also quick to volunteer her time to help at football games or fundraisers. At team hangouts, Clark would deliver one-liners and leave the room belly-laughing.

“Everyone loved her,” he said. “Jadah was just funny.”

The kind player also had a competitive side. Tucker joked that she was prone to play so hard she’d foul out from time to time, but she gave each game her all.

Tucker said the number of shootings has devastated urban communities like the Kansas City metro, cutting bright futures short, as in Clark’s case.

“A lot of our minority youth are getting killed … and they’re not even able to see 25 because of gun violence,” he said. “This young lady lost her life over stupidity.”

The Froggattes have launched a fundraiser for Clark’s family, where they wrote that she received an “honor walk” to the transplant room.

“She is gone, but today she saved many lives,” the page reads.

Police continue to ask anyone with information about the shooting to contact the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.