KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A festive celebration came to a violent and terrifying end Wednesday when gunshots rang out minutes after the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade and rally. One person has died and more than 20 others have been shot.
Thousands of fans lined the parade route to cheer on the Super Bowl champs. Many then made their way to a rally near Union Station. The shooting took place in the vicinity as the rally was wrapping up.
Social media users posted a shocking video of police running through a crowded scene as people in attendance hurriedly scrambled for cover and ran away. One 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 and tackle someone, holding that person down until two police officers arrived.
Zachary Dial made the trip from Richmond, Mo. and said he was sitting on a wall when the shots rang out and saw a flood of people running across the lawn.
“It was like two seconds after I put my phone down from recording them singing on stage, and I put my phone down and all the sudden the shots rang out and I put my phone right back up and started scanning people that were running. I was trying to direct people to not go that way because they were going underneath us and they were walking towards everything that was going on and we were saying you don’t want to go that way,” Dial told Spectrum News.
Lisa Money of Kansas 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. Then you’ve got some idiot that wants to come along and do something like this,” she said.
Kevin Sanders, 53, of Lenexa, Kan. said he heard what sounded like firecrackers and then people running. After that initial flurry, calm returned, and he didn’t think much of it. But he said 10 minutes later, ambulances started showing up.
“It sucks that someone had to ruin the celebration, but we are in a big city,” Sanders said.
This shooting comes less than a month after a shooting that injured six people at the Crown Center in downtown Kansas City.
Kansas City 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.
Mayor Quinton Lucas has joined with mayors across the country in calling for new laws to reduce gun violence, including mandating universal background checks.
Lucas, who attended the celebration with his wife and mother, said he was heartbroken and angry.
“This is absolutely a tragedy, the likes of which we never would have expected in Kansas City, the likes of which we’ll remember for some time,” Lucas said.