KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities in Kansas Metropolis mentioned Thursday that the mass taking pictures that unfolded amid throngs of individuals on the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration appeared to stem from a dispute between a number of folks.
Police Chief Stacey Graves mentioned that the 22 folks injured within the taking pictures ranged between the ages of 8 and 47 years previous, half of whom have been below the age of 16. A mom of two was additionally killed.
Three folks have been detained — together with two are juveniles — and firearms have been recovered through the mayhem, police mentioned. However investigators are calling for witnesses, folks with cellphone footage and victims of the violence to name a devoted hotline.
“We’re working to find out the involvement of others. And it must be famous we now have recovered a number of firearms. This incident remains to be a really energetic investigation,” Graves mentioned at a information convention.
The shooting exterior Union Station occurred regardless of the presence of greater than 800 law enforcement officials who have been within the constructing and close by, together with on high of close by constructions, mentioned Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended together with his spouse and mom and ran for security when the photographs rang out. However he doesn’t count on to cancel upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Jamie Squire by way of Getty Photos
“We’ve got parades on a regular basis. I don’t assume they’ll finish. Actually we acknowledged the general public security challenges and points that relate to them,” Lucas mentioned.
Throngs had lined the parade route earlier than the taking pictures, with followers climbing bushes and avenue poles or standing on rooftops for a greater view. Gamers rolled by means of the gang on double-decker buses, as DJs and drummers heralded their arrival.
It’s unclear precisely how many individuals attended the Chief’s Tremendous Bowl parade. When the Kansas Metropolis Royals gained the World Sequence in 2015, an estimated 800,000 folks had flocked to that victory parade, shattering expectations in a metropolis with a inhabitants of about 470,000 and a metropolitan space of about 2 million.
Witnesses described confusion as gunshots started, sounding to some like fireworks.
Some folks didn’t run at first however others instantly scrambled for canopy. The rally music initially continued enjoying regardless of the havoc. After which, inside moments of the taking pictures stopping, some folks have been strolling as if nothing occurred.
Gene Hamilton, 61, of Wichita, Kansas, mentioned he discovered it unnerving that the upbeat rally music continued among the many confusion.
“If individuals are taking pictures, they need to change the music,” he mentioned.
Ashley Coderre, a 36-year-old from Overland Park, Kansas, mentioned she heard two or three photographs after strolling out of a Panera close to Crown Heart, a pair blocks from Union Station. She mentioned folks have been operating and yelling.
Then immediately she mentioned folks have been strolling round like nothing had occurred: “We have been so confused.”
It’s the newest sports activities celebration within the U.S. to be marred by gun violence, following a taking pictures that wounded a number of folks last year in Denver after the Nuggets’ NBA championship and gunfire final 12 months at a car parking zone close to the Texas Rangers’ World Sequence championship parade.
Social media customers posted surprising video of police operating by means of Wednesday’s crowded scene as folks scrambled for canopy and fled. One video confirmed somebody apparently performing chest compressions on a sufferer as one other individual, seemingly writhing in ache, lay on the bottom close by. Individuals screamed within the background.
One other video confirmed two folks chase and sort out an individual, holding them down till two law enforcement officials arrived. In an interview Thursday with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Trey Filter of Wichita, Kansas, mentioned he noticed somebody being chased and took motion.
“I couldn’t see a lot. I heard, ‘Get ‘em!’ I noticed a flash subsequent to me. And I keep in mind I jumped and keep in mind considering, ‘I hope that is the idiot they have been speaking about,’” he mentioned. “They began yelling that, ‘There’s a gun! There’s a gun!’”
Filter mentioned he and one other man stored the individual pinned down till officers arrived. “I keep in mind the officers pulling my toes off of him and at that time I used to be simply on the lookout for my spouse and youngsters,” he mentioned.
It was not instantly clear if the individual he held down was concerned within the taking pictures, however Filter’s spouse, Casey, noticed a gun close by and picked it up.
The woman killed in the shooting was recognized by radio station KKFI-FM as Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of “Style of Tejano.”
Lopez-Galvan, whose DJ title was “Lisa G,” was an extrovert and devoted mom from a distinguished Latino household within the space, mentioned Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, two childhood mates who labored together with her at a staffing firm.
“She’s the kind of one that would bounce in entrance of a bullet for anyone — that may be Lisa,” Izurieta mentioned.
Kansas Metropolis has lengthy struggled with gun violence, and in 2020 it was among nine cities focused by the U.S. Justice Division in an effort to crack down on violent crime. In 2023, town matched a document with 182 homicides, most of which concerned weapons.
Lucas has joined with mayors throughout the nation in calling for brand new legal guidelines to scale back gun violence, together with mandating common background checks.
“We did every part to make this occasion as secure as doable,” Lucas, a Democrat, mentioned in an interview on KMBC-TV Thursday. “However so long as we now have fools who will commit all these acts, so long as we now have their entry to firearms with this degree of capability, then we might even see incidents like this one.”
Kansas Metropolis Star by way of Getty Photos
Jamie Squire by way of Getty Photos
The parade and rally have been the third in 5 years after Chiefs’ Tremendous Bowl wins. Lucas mentioned it might be time to rethink the right way to deal with the following one in the event that they win once more, maybe holding a “vastly smaller occasion” at Arrowhead Stadium, with followers going by means of metallic detectors.
Lisa Cash of Kansas Metropolis was making an attempt to assemble some confetti close to the top of the parade when she heard someone yell, “Down, down, everyone down!” At first she thought it is likely to be a joke, till she noticed the SWAT crew leaping over the fence.
“I can’t imagine it actually occurred,” Cash mentioned. “Who of their proper thoughts would do one thing like this?”
College Well being spokesperson Leslie Carto mentioned two of the eight gunshot victims dropped at the hospital are nonetheless in essential situation. One is in secure situation. The opposite 5 have been discharged. The hospital additionally handled 4 folks from the rally who had nongunshot accidents. Three of these sufferers have been discharged, Carto mentioned.
Stephanie Meyer, chief nursing officer for Youngsters’s Mercy Kansas Metropolis, mentioned it was treating 12 sufferers from the rally, together with 11 youngsters between the ages of 6 and 15, lots of whom suffered gunshot wounds. All have been anticipated to get better, she mentioned.
When requested in regards to the situation of the kids, Meyer responded: “Worry. The one phrase I’d use to explain what we noticed and the way they got here to us was concern.”
St. Luke’s Hospital spokesperson Emily Hohenberg mentioned one gunshot sufferer on the hospital stays in essential situation. 4 individuals who suffered accidents whereas fleeing the aftermath of the taking pictures have been handled and launched.
Related Press writers Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Summer time Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
