1 dead, kids among 21 injured in Super Bowl parade shooting
KANSAS CITY—One person was killed and children were among the 21 injured after a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally on Wednesday triggered panic among huge crowds of fans.
Shots rang out moments after jubilant Chiefs players addressed a vast, cheering crowd, sending shocked fans and VIPs fleeing in a tragic end to what had been a joyous morning of celebrating the NFL champions.
Police said three people had been taken into custody after the attack near Kansas City’s Union Station, but the motive behind the shooting was still under investigation.
Fire department chief Ross Grundyson told a press conference that many of the victims had sustained “life-threatening injuries.”
A local DJ, Lisa Lopez, was killed in the assault, her radio station said.
“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” KKFI posted on its Facebook page, referring to Kansas City.
Expected to recover
Children’s Mercy Hospital said it was treating 12 people—11 of them children, nine for gunshot wounds—after the shooting. A hospital spokesperson said all were expected to recover.
Paul Contreras, who was at the rally with his three daughters, said he tackled and disarmed one of the suspected shooters before the police arrived.
“I got the right angle on him and I hit him from behind. And when I hit him from behind, I either jarred the gun out of his hand or out of his sleeve,” Contreras said on CNN. “I take him down, and I’m putting all my body weight on him. And then another good Samaritan comes over and is helping me.”
‘Shame us into acting’
US President Joe Biden issued a rallying call for Americans to back his pleas for Congress to enact gun reform, saying Wednesday’s shooting “cuts deep.”
“Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting,” Biden said in a White House statement.
He called on Americans to “make your voice heard in Congress so we finally act to ban assault weapons, to limit high-capacity magazines, strengthen background checks, keep guns out of the hands of those who have no business owning them or handling them.”
There had been no hint of trouble as hundreds of thousands of partying supporters feted Chiefs players along a 2-mile (3-kilometer) route in a procession of double-decker buses, enveloped by a blizzard of red-and-gold confetti.
Local officials said more than 1 million people were expected for the parade, which was held in unseasonably sunny, warm conditions in downtown Kansas City.
Mass shootings are common in the United States, where there are more guns than people and about a third of adults own a firearm.
The attack in Kansas City wasn’t even the only shooting to grab national headlines Wednesday: four students were also shot outside an Atlanta high school, while three police officers were shot during a standoff in the capital Washington. All are expected to survive, according to media reports.
The shootings came six years to the day after 17 people were killed in an attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
