At least one person was killed and 21 others injured, including multiple children, in Wednesday afternoon’s shooting that turned a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs into a scene of tragedy and chaos.
Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, have said that three people were arrested in connection with the shooting near Union Station, which took place as the celebration was wrapping up.
Among the injured, 11 children are being treated at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, nine of them for gunshot wounds. All the children are expected to recover from their injuries, according to the hospital’s senior vice-president, Stephanie Meyer, who issued an update on Wednesday evening. The minors in the hospital’s care are between the ages of six and 15. An adult who is a parent of one of the children is also being treated there.
Joe Biden released a statement urging action on gun control, saying that for such an attack to occur during a Super Bowl parade “cuts deep in the American soul”.
“Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for? What else do we need to see? How many more families need to be torn apart?” he said.
The president urged people to make their voices heard in Congress for action to ban assault weapons, limit high-capacity magazines and strengthen background checks.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was incidental to the parade, which was attended by the Super Bowl champions as well as 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 hectic 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.
“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.
The violence drew widespread condemnation from sports figures and authorities alike. 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 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”. Tight end Travis Kelce said he was “heartbroken”, tweeting: “KC, you mean the world to me.”
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, the 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 added.
The city’s 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 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 knew of only one death so far.
The mass shooting took place six years to the day when 17 people were shot dead in the Parkland high school massacre in Florida, and drew familiar pangs of frustration over the epidemic of mass shootings in America.
Mayor Lucas connected the tragedy back to the crisis of gun violence and called for more action to stop it.
“Today was tragic for everyone who was part of it,” he said, adding that his wife put it into perspective when he called her after the shooting. “We became part of a statistic of too many Americans – those who have experienced or been part of or connected to a mass shooting,” he quoted her as saying.
Gabrielle Canon and agencies contributed reporting
