SEARCH FOR ANSWERS CONTINUES IN SHOOTING AT SUPER BOWL PARADE
Authorities in Kansas City are working to decipher who was behind the mass shooting that unfolded Wednesday amid throngs of people at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration, where 21 people were wounded — including at least eight children — and a mother of two was killed.
Three people were detained and firearms were recovered during the mayhem, police said.
But investigators are calling for witnesses, people with cellphone footage and victims of the violence to call a dedicated hotline.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said Wednesday evening that investigators were still piecing together what happened and did not release details about those who were detained or a possible motive.
“I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment,” Graves said.
The shooting outside
Union Station occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police officers who were in the building and nearby, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran for safety when the shots rang out.
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.
Witnesses described confusion as gunshots began, sounding to some like fireworks.
Some people didn’t run at first but others immediately scrambled for cover. The rally music initially continued playing despite the havoc.
And then, within moments of the shooting stopping, some people were walking as if nothing happened.
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 as people scrambled for cover and fled.
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, Kan., 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.
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.
Lopez-galvan, whose DJ name was “Lisa G,” was a devoted mother from a prominent Latino family in the area, said two childhood friends who worked with her at a staffing company.
University Health spokesperson Leslie Carto said two of the eight gunshot victims brought to the hospital are still in critical condition. One is in stable condition. The other five have been discharged.
The hospital also treated four people from the rally who had non-gunshot injuries. Three of those patients were discharged, Carto said.
St. Luke’s Hospital spokesperson Emily Hohenberg said one gunshot victim at the hospital remains in critical condition.
Four people who suffered injuries while fleeing the aftermath of the shooting were treated and released.