Warning: This story contains graphic images of wounded victims.
The mass shooting that unfolded amid throngs of people at the Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration appeared to stem from a dispute between several people, authorities said Thursday.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said that the 22 people injured in the shooting ranged between the ages of eight and 47 years old, half of whom were under the age of 16. A mother of two was also killed.
Three people were detained — including two juveniles — but no charges have been filed yet, Graves said. Police are calling for witnesses, people with cellphone footage and victims of the violence to call a dedicated hotline.
“We are working to determine the involvement of others. And it should be noted we have recovered several firearms. This incident is still a very active investigation,” Graves said at a news conference.
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The shooting outside Union Station occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police officers who were in the building and area, including on top of nearby structures, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran for safety when the shots rang out. But he doesn’t expect to cancel the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“We have parades all the time. I don’t think they’ll end. Certainly we recognized the public safety challenges and issues that relate to them,” Lucas said.
Throngs had lined the parade route before the shooting, with fans climbing trees and street poles or standing on rooftops for a better view. Players rolled through the crowd on double-decker buses, as DJs and drummers heralded their arrival.
The police chief said the gun violence mostly unfolded on the west side of Union Station, addressing initial reports that shootings occurred in more than one location.
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1 million people likely attended Graves said 1 million people likely attended the Chief’s Super Bowl parade, which occurred in a city with a population of about 470,000 people and a metropolitan area of about 2 million, but stressed that the violence was wrought by just a handful of people.
“The law enforcement response was exemplary. Those in attendance also responded,” Graves added. “They helped one another and even physically stop a person who was believed to be involved in the incident.”
Meanwhile, police are still asking witnesses to come forward. Many have described a sense of confusion that rippled through the crowd.
The rally had just ended and music was still blaring when the shots erupted. Many people initially thought they were hearing fireworks. But then chaos ensued. Some in the crowd hit the ground while others leapt over barriers and sprinted from the scene, some carrying children in their arms.
The crowd was so massive that normalcy returned quickly, with some fans unsure what had happened. But it became clear there was a shooting as ambulances arrived and officers rushed in with guns drawn. Some of the less seriously injured were driven away on golf carts.
The stunned crowd — some in tears — slowly gathered their belongings, trying to figure out how to get home. Strangers comforted each other as police put up crime scene tape in an area where moments early it had been a joyous celebration.
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Ashley Coderre, a 36-year-old from Overland Park, Kansas, said she heard two or three shots after walking out of a Panera near Crown Center, a couple blocks from Union Station. She said people were running and yelling.
Then suddenly she said people were walking around like nothing had happened: “We were so confused.”
Social media users posted shocking video of police running through Wednesday’s crowded scene. One video showed someone apparently performing chest compressions on a victim as another person, seemingly writhing in pain, lay on the ground nearby. People screamed in the background.
Another video showed two people chase and tackle a person, holding them down until two police officers arrived. In an interview Thursday with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Trey Filter of Wichita, Kansas, said he saw someone being chased and took action.
“I couldn’t see much. I heard, `Get ’em!’ I saw a flash next to me. And I remember I jumped and remember thinking, `I hope this is the fool they were talking about,”‘ he said. “They started yelling that, ‘There’s a gun! There’s a gun!'”
Filter said he and another man kept the person pinned down until officers arrived. “I remember the officers pulling my feet off of him and at that point I was just looking for my wife and kids,” he said.
An injured person is helped near the location of Kansas City’s Super Bowl parade. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) Wife saw a gun It was not immediately clear if the person he held down was involved in the shooting, but Filter’s wife, Casey, saw a gun nearby and picked it up.
The woman killed in the shooting was identified by radio station KKFI-FM as Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of “Taste of Tejano.”
Kansas City has long struggled with gun violence, and in 2020 it was among nine cities targeted by the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to crack down on violent crime. In 2023, the city matched a record with 182 homicides, most of which involved guns.
A police officer responds to the shooting near Union Station during Kansas City’s Super Bowl parade. Police confirmed at least one person was killed, while as many as 10 to 15 others could be injured. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Lucas has joined with mayors across the country in calling for new laws to reduce gun violence, including mandating universal background checks.
“We did everything to make this event as safe as possible,” Lucas, a Democrat, said in an interview on KMBC-TV Thursday. “But as long as we have fools who will commit these types of acts, as long as we have their access to firearms with this level of capacity, then we may see incidents like this one.”
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Dr. Dustin Neel, of University Health Truman Medical Center, said three people with gunshot wounds were still being treated there Thursday, including two in critical condition.
One is a man who survived only because staff got him to the operating room within five minutes of arrival, Neel said.
St. Luke’s Hospital spokesperson Emily Hohenberg said one gunshot victim was upgraded from critical to serious condition. Four people who suffered injuries while fleeing the aftermath of the shooting were treated and released.
Children’s Mercy Kansas City said three children remain there. It had received 11 children between the ages of six and 15, nine of whom suffered gunshot wounds. All were expected to recover.
Stephanie Meyer, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said at a Thursday news conference that the kids are scared and will need mental health support. The hospital’s staff members are also struggling.
“They’re struggling just like you and I are, and unbelievably heartbroken that this has happened in our backyard,” said Dr. Stephanie Burrus, the hospital’s chief wellbeing officer. “And we all train for this, we’re all prepared to take care of these children. But it doesn’t negate the fact that it’s still not normal for people to see many, many people wounded by gunshots.”