Two charged with murder over Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting
Two men were charged on Tuesday afternoon with murder in connection with a mass shooting in Kansas City on 14 February that killed one person and wounded 22 others at a rally for the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs, according to prosecutors.
As celebrations were winding up for the Chiefs and thousands of fans, after they returned triumphantly having won the Super Bowl in Las Vegas the previous weekend, gunfire erupted among the crowd.
Two armed people were arrested on the day. Last Friday, two individuals described as juveniles were charged with crimes but no specific indictments were released publicly.
The two suspects, identified as Dominic Miller of Kansas City and Lyndell Mays of nearby Raytown, each face charges of second-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, according to a statement from the Jackson county prosecutor’s office.
“According to court records, the defendants attended a Super Bowl parade and rally on February 14, 2024, and were armed with firearms,” the statement said. It added: “A verbal altercation occurred and gunfire broke out with no regard for thousands of other individuals in the area.”
The woman who died in the shooting, Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan, 43, was a popular radio disc jockey, her station and friends said.
At a brief news conference announcing the charges, Jackson county prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the investigation showed the violence began when Mays became involved in a verbal argument with another person, who was a stranger to him.
Baker told reporters on Tuesday that their quarrel “very quickly escalated”, with Mays pulling out a pistol, followed by others in the vicinity “almost immediately” drawing their weapons.
While both Mays and Miller are charged with murder, Baker said the evidence shows it was gunfire from Miller’s weapon that struck and killed Lopez-Galvan.
Twenty-two other people, including at least nine children, were wounded by gunfire, authorities said.
The shooting unfolded following a parade and rally near the city’s landmark Union Station, where many thousands of fans had gathered as the Kansas City Chiefs were celebrating their Super Bowl triumph over the San Francisco 49ers just days earlier in a nail-biting finish that went into overtime.
The day after the terrifying incident, the Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and his wife, Brittany, visited two young sisters who were both shot in the legs.
The Mahomeses dropped in on 10-year-old Madison Reyes and Melia Reyes, aged eight, at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, where they were recovering from surgeries.
The Reyes family called Wednesday’s shooting at what had been the exuberant festival celebrating the Chiefs’ third Super Bowl championship in four years “a senseless act”.
Player Travis Kelce called the shooting “deeply tragic” and players had to comfort terrified children in their entourage last Wednesday after bullets began flying and many bystanders fled or took cover.
Some fans said they were almost trampled as they tried to escape the carnage, while others reportedly helped tackle a suspected shooter.