At least one person was killed and 22 others injured in a shooting on Wednesday afternoon during a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, said eight of the victims were in critical condition, and that three people have been arrested in connection with the shooting near Union station, which took place as the celebration was wrapping up.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was incidental to the parade, attended by Mike Parson and Laura Kelly, the respective governors of Missouri and Kansas. But hundreds of people who gathered to celebrate the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory on Sunday over the San Francisco 49ers ran for shelter as the gunfire began.
Video footage showed a chaotic scene near Union station as police and first responders rushed to lead people to safety.
Witnesses, in harrowing accounts, described fleeing from gunfire. A high school student told the Kansas City Star that he injured himself while running away from the shots.
“The security guard was like, ‘Get over the damn fence right now, there’s a shooter.’ When I was hopping over the barricade, my foot hit [it] and my face nailed the concrete,” Gabe Wallace told the newspaper. He said he had not yet made contact with some friends who attended the parade.
“I have no idea if my friends are OK,” he told the Star. “It’s terrible … I’m literally thinking, most of my friends are dead. That’s all that went through my mind, like, ‘Are my friends dead or not?’”
Hank Hunter, 16, who traveled to the celebration from Westwood, Kansas, told the Star that he heard what sounded like multiple gunshots as he and a friend ran.
“We heard the shots. It sounded like a multitude of shots,” Hunter said, adding that he did not see the shooter but saw multiple police officers responding to the shooting.
After the shooting, players with the Kansas City Chiefs reportedly left the parade on buses while trying to calm scared children. The NFL team issued a statement confirming that all of its players, staff and families were safe, calling the shooting a “senseless act of violence”.
The players have expressed gratitude to the emergency personnel who responded. The Chiefs’ quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, posted to X that he was “praying for Kansas City”, while a teammate, Drue Tranquill, encouraged people to “pray that doctors and first responders would have steady hands and that all would experience full healing”.
Chiefs guard Trey Smith posted on X: “My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by today’s incidents – a huge thank you to the first responders who ran towards the sound of danger. You’re the ones who should be celebrated today.”
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves praised the bravery of officers who “ran into danger” and said the violence would have long-lasting effects on Kansas City and those who witnessed the incident.
“There are a lot more people who are going to be forever impacted by what happened here today,” she said.
“We were here for a safe celebration and because of two bad actors – that’s why we are standing here today. My heart goes out to our victim who is deceased,” she added.
The city mayor, Quinton Lucas, said he was extremely upset by what had happened. “I’m as heartbroken as anybody,” he said. “When you have people who decide to bring guns to events … all of us start to be members of this club that none of us wants to be a part of, people who have been part of a mass shooting.”
The White House said it was monitoring developments from the mass shooting, which took place six years to the day that 17 people were shot dead in the Parkland high school massacre in Florida.
The Kansas City Star identified a victim who died in Wednesday’s shooting. The newspaper reported that friends of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a local DJ and mother of two, confirmed she died during surgery after being shot in the abdomen.
“She was the most wonderful, beautiful person,” a friend told the newspaper. “She was a local DJ. She did everybody’s weddings. We all know her. She was so full of life.”
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, officials said they know of only one death so far.
