Two juveniles have been detained in connection with Wednesday’s shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration rally, which left one dead and more than 20 wounded, police said.
At least 23 victims have been identified, including a 43-year-old woman who died, police chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference Thursday. The other 22 victims range in age from 8 to 47, Graves said, adding that half are younger than 16.
The shooting appears to have been a “dispute between several people that ended in gunfire,” Graves said, noting there is no indication of a “nexus to terrorism or homegrown violent extremism.”
On Wednesday, Graves said three people had been detained and an unspecified number of guns recovered by police. On Thursday, a Kansas City police spokesperson told CNN one person who was in custody was “determined to not be involved.” Two juvenile teens remained in custody for further investigation, police said.
Several law enforcement officials similarly told CNN the shooting was believed to have been the result of a personal dispute in the area, and not an attack on the celebration itself.
One of those officials said the people in custody are believed to have been involved in the dispute and that, initially, 10 people were questioned. The status of the other seven who were questioned is unclear.
Police have yet to file any charges, Graves said at Thursday’s news conference, telling reporters the investigation was ongoing and her department was working closely with the office of Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Baker vowed to “get answers” in a post on X Thursday morning, writing in part, “I will use every tool at my disposal under Missouri law that allows me to address this tragedy.”
Good morning, Kansas City.
We love you.
We will get through this together. We will get answers. We will heal together. And we will fight together.
And I will use every tool at my disposal under Missouri law that allows me to address this tragedy.
— Jean Peters Baker (@jeanpetersbaker) February 15, 2024
The gunfire Wednesday erupted after an estimated 1 million people gathered steps from Union Station in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, for the parade and rally to mark the Chiefs’ repeat championship win, sending fans running for cover as law enforcement swarmed the area, confetti still blowing in the wind.
Four hospitals received 30 patients – 19 with gunshot wounds – from the shooting, their staffs told CNN. Children’s Mercy hospital received 11 children between ages 6 and 15 – nine who’d been shot – from the scene, hospital spokesperson Lisa Augustine said. Three children remained in the hospital Thursday. They are expected to recover from their injuries, said Children’s Mercy hospital Chief Nursing Officer Stephanie Meyer.
The shooting was the second in a year at a major US sports title celebration; two people were wounded in June as Denver fans left a parade for the NBA’s Nuggets. It marked yet another place where a sense of safety was punctured by gun violence, with American churches, schools, grocery stores and outlet malls already marred by shootings.
“Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday.
Wednesday’s was at least the 48th mass shooting in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN counts those in which four or more are shot, not including a perpetrator.
Woman who was killed ‘was the light at every party’
Radio DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan died after getting shot at the rally, her employer KKFI 90.1 FM said.
“We are absolutely devastated at the loss of such an amazing person who gave so much to KKFI and the KC community,” station spokesperson Kelly Dougherty said in an email to CNN.
Lopez-Galvan “leaves behind an incredible legacy,” said Manny Abarca, a Jackson County, Missouri, legislator who was at the parade with his daughter. He knew Lopez-Galvan, a member of a “very large family of civic leaders” actively involved with the city’s Latino community.
“She was the light at every party. She was often times the voluntary DJ when everyone needed one for a community event,” he told “CNN This Morning.”
Members of Lopez-Galvan’s family are among those injured during the shooting, according to a Facebook post by the mayor of Lee’s Summit, a suburb about 20 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Lopez-Galvan’s brother is Lee’s Summit Mayor Pro Tem Beto Lopez, Mayor Bill Baird wrote, noting two of Lopez’s nieces and a nephew were injured.
“There’s no one louder in my family than she was as a Chiefs fan,” Lopez told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday night about his sister.
“Lisa absolutely was an amazing woman, great mother, great sister, great friend. She just loved having fun and helping others and, you know, the things that she did in this community are going to be felt,” Lopez said. “People are going to be hurting for a while with her loss.”
Lopez-Galvan impacted her community in many ways, including by raising money for charitable causes and organizations, Lopez said.
“You have tragic situations like this one that occur unfortunately way too often and a lot of times individuals get lost as just statistics or numbers. My sister was a real person. She was a very loving, caring and devoted mother,” her brother said.
“We want as many people across the country to know about her,” he added.
Police detain person tackled by fans
Paul Contreras was at the event with his daughters when people started running.
He saw someone moving “in the opposite direction” and heard someone yell to stop him, he told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. Contreras hit the person from behind and tackled him, knocking a gun to the ground, he said. Two other attendees then helped hold the person down.
“He was fighting the whole time,” Contreras said. “And we were fighting him to keep him down.”
Police handcuffed the person pinned to the ground, video shows, though it’s unclear if that person was among those police detained. “We are working to determine if one of the three are the one that was in (a) video where fans assisted police,” Graves said Wednesday.
Jacob Gooch, who was shot in the ankle, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday night he heard a woman saying to someone, “Not now, this isn’t the place,” right before gunshots were fired.
The next moments were chaos: Gooch said he thought the noises were fireworks, even after he saw smoke coming out of his ankle, while debris flew all around. As people began rushing by, he fell to the ground and tried to crawl away, realizing he had been hit.
Gooch said his wife and 13-year-old son were also shot.
“Expressing the feelings in words is just near impossible right now,” he said. “It’s scary. You can’t even fathom something like this happening to you. You know it happens, but you never expect it to happen to you.”
The FBI established a tip website, urging the public to submit videos that capture the shooting or suspects trying to flee.
How one official helped save lives
Officials with the University Health Kansas City hospital said in a Thursday news conference they received eight gunshot victims. Two remained in critical condition, while another was in stable condition. The remainder have been discharged, they said.
One of the two patients who were in critical condition was likely saved by the actions of one local fire official, Dr. Dustin Neel said.
“The medical director of the (Kansas City fire department) is also an emergency medicine physician here. She was at the scene and was able to triage these patients appropriately very quickly and efficiently, which ultimately allowed the sickest people to get to us first,” Neel said.
“The first person who arrived … that’s in critical condition, had he not made it here as fast as he had, he might not be with us now. He sustained extremely life-threatening injuries,” Neel added.
Thanks to the fire official’s help, that person was taken straight to the operating room. That patient improved overnight and there are plans for more operations Thursday, Neel said.