LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — One person was killed and 22 others were shot as gunfire erupted at the end of Wednesday’s Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade and rally.
Three of those shooting victims were all from the same Leavenworth, Kansas family. They are out of the hospital but have physical and emotional scars.
Jacob Gooch Sr., his wife Emily Tavis and their three kids had just enjoyed a second straight Chiefs Super Bowl rally at Union Station.
“It was a blast like usual up until the end,” Gooch said.
As they were preparing to leave they noticed the commotion.
“There was a lady breaking up an altercation saying ‘not right now this isn’t the place this isn’t the time,'” he recalled.
“I seen him draw a gun and he started shooting,” Tavis said.
“Then it was pop pop pop gunshots. I’m yelling, ‘I’m hit get out get away,'” Gooch described.
A bullet went into Gooch’s foot.
“It went in here and there’s a hole here and at the bottom,” he pointed to the wounds.
One also went into Tavis’s leg. Though as she laid on the ground to shield her seven-year-old son from the gunfire, she didn’t realize it.
“I said ‘no I’m fine.’ She said ‘are you sure because you have blood on your pants?’ And I was like oh shoot maybe I’m not fine,” Tavis said.
Gooch tried to run, but fell to the ground and began crawling away from the gunfire. Several thoughts raced through his mind.
“Are they done shooting? Are they going to keep shooting? Are we safe where we are at? Do we need to move?”
As police and other fans chased and tackled potential shooters, other people at the rally would carry the Leavenworth parents to a medical tent. Each was still concerned where there other children were in the chaos. They were reunited before being loaded into an ambulance.
“We watched that the whole time we were at the hospital. It started with eight people hurt, then it said one person dead, 14 hurt. Then one person dead, 18, hurt. Then 20, 22, it’s just ridiculous. It’s devastating for something that’s supposed to be such a great day to turn into such a huge tragedy,” Gooch said.
As they prepared to go to a church service Thursday night where they prayed for the other victims, Tavis could only think, “We’re here and we are able to be together and some families aren’t that lucky. So I’m thankful.”
