Warning: This story contains graphic images of wounded victims.
Nine children were among 22 people injured by gunfire in a shooting at the end of Wednesday’s parade to celebrate Kansas City’s Super Bowl win, Children’s Mercy Hospital said, as terrified fans ran for cover and yet another high-profile public event was marred by gun violence. One person was killed, identified by her radio station as a DJ.
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves detailed the shooting’s toll at a news conference and said three people had been taken into custody. She said she has heard that fans may have been involved in apprehending a suspect but couldn’t confirm that.
“I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment,” Graves said.
Police did not immediately release any details about the people taken into custody or about a possible motive for the shootings. She said firearms had been recovered, but not what kind of weapons were used.
“There’s a lot of work ahead. This is just the beginning stages,” she said. “All of that is being actively investigated.”
Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory parade was thrown into chaos when people began fleeing after hearing gunshots.
It is the latest sports celebration in the U.S. to be marred by gun violence, following a shooting that injured several people last year in downtown Denver after the Nuggets’ NBA championship, and gunfire last year at a parking lot near the Texas Rangers’ World Series championship parade.
Social media users posted shocking video of police running through a crowded scene as people scrambled for cover and fled. One user’s video showed someone apparently performing chest compressions on a shooting victim as another person, seemingly writhing in pain, lay on the ground nearby. People screamed in the background.
Another video showed two onlookers chase down and tackle someone, holding that person down until two police officers arrived.
Paul Contreras said he heard people yelling to catch someone running past, so he leapt into action. Contreras describes how he tackled and helped pin an alleged shooter at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade on Wednesday.
Station identifies woman killed
Local radio station KKFI said in a Facebook post Wednesday evening that DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of the show Taste of Tejano, was killed in the shooting.
“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” KKFI said in a statement.
Lopez-Galvan, whose DJ name was “Lisa G,” was an extrovert and devoted mother from a prominent Latino family in the area, said Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, two childhood friends who worked with her at a staffing company. Izurieta said Lopez-Galvan had attended the parade with her husband and her adult son, a die-hard Kansas City sports fan who was also shot.
“She’s the type of person who would jump in front of a bullet for anybody — that would be Lisa,” Izurieta said.
The shooting outside Union Station happened despite more than 800 police officers who were in the building and around the area, including on top of nearby buildings, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and had to run for cover when gunfire broke out.
“I think that’s something that all of us who are parents, who are just regular people living each day, have to decide what we wish to do about,” Lucas said. “Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe.”
Kansas City, Mo., 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.
Lucas has joined with mayors across the country in calling for new laws to reduce gun violence, including mandating universal background checks.
Lisa Money, a resident of the city, was trying to gather some confetti near the end of the parade when she heard somebody yell, “Down, down, everybody down!”
At first, Money thought somebody might be joking, until she saw the SWAT team jumping over the fence.
“I can’t believe it really happened. Who in their right mind would do something like this? This is supposed to be a day of celebration for everybody in the city and the surrounding area, and then you’ve got some idiot that wants to come along and do something like this,” she said.
University Health spokesperson Nancy Lewis said the hospital was treating eight gunshot victims. Two were in critical condition and six were in stable condition, she said. The hospital also was treating four people for other injuries resulting from the chaos after the shooting, Lewis said.
Lisa Augustine, spokesperson for Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said the hospital was treating 12 patients from the rally, including 11 children.
St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City received one gunshot patient in critical condition and one walk-in patient with injuries that were not life-threatening, spokesperson Laurel Gifford said.
“When you have this many casualties, it’s going to get spread out among a lot of hospitals so that you don’t overwhelm any single ER,” said Jill Jensen Chadwick, news director for University of Kansas Health System, which received at least one person injured in the shooting.
Police in Kansas City, Mo., discuss a shooting that happened at the end of the city’s Super Bowl parade.
Team members were on buses
The parade was a celebration of Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers that gave them their second straight Super Bowl title.
Kansas City team trainer Rick Burkholder said he was with coach Andy Reid and other coaches and staff members, and the team was on buses and returning to Arrowhead Stadium.
“We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally,” the team said in a statement.
Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson and his wife Teresa Parson were at the parade during the gunfire but were unhurt. “Thanks to the professionalism of our security officers and first responders, Teresa and I and our staff are safe and secure,” Parson said in a statement.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the shooting “cuts deep in the American soul” and called on people to press Congress to ban assault weapons, to limit high-capacity gun magazines and for other gun measures that have been rejected by Republicans.
“Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for?” he said.
Biden noted that Wednesday was the anniversary of the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people and said there have been more mass shootings in 2024 “than there have been days in the year.”
Throngs of people had lined the parade route, with fans climbing trees and street poles, or standing on rooftops for a better view. Players rolled through the crowd on double-decker buses, DJs and drummers heralding their arrival.
The city and the team each chipped in around $1 million US for the event commemorating Travis Kelce, Mahomes and the franchise becoming the first team since Tom Brady and the New England Patriots two decades ago to defend their title.