KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities in Kansas City said Thursday that the mass shooting that left one person dead and 22 injured at the Chiefs‘ Super Bowl celebration appeared to have stemmed from a dispute among several people.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said Thursday that the total number of victims is 23, including Lisa Lopez-Galvan, who was killed in the shooting. Graves said that the 22 people injured in the shooting ranged between the ages of 8 and 47 years old and that half of the injured were under the age of 16.
Fire Chief Ross Grundyson said the victims included eight critically hurt and seven in serious condition.
An adult who had been detained has been released from custody, police spokesperson Alayna Gonzalez told multiple media outlets Thursday. That leaves two juveniles detained.
“The two juveniles are currently being held in custody while we work with juvenile prosecutors to review investigative findings and determine applicable charges,” Gonzalez said.
Investigators are calling for witnesses, people with cellphone footage and victims of the violence to call a dedicated hotline.
“We are working to determine the involvement of others. And it should be noted we have recovered several firearms. This incident is still a very active investigation,” Graves said at a news conference.
The Valentine’s Day shooting outside Union Station occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police officers who were in the building and nearby, including on top of nearby structures, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran for safety when the shots rang out. Lucas said he doesn’t expect to cancel the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“We have parades all the time. I don’t think they’ll end. Certainly, we recognized the public safety challenges and issues that relate to them,” Lucas said.
People 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.
The police chief said the gun violence mostly unfolded on the west side of Union Station, addressing initial reports that shootings occurred in more than one location.
Graves said 1 million people likely attended the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, which occurred in a city with a population of about 470,000 people and a metropolitan area of about 2 million, but she stressed that the violence was wrought by just a handful of people.
“The law enforcement response was exemplary. Those in attendance also responded,” Graves added. “They helped one another and even physically [stopped] a person who was believed to be involved in the incident.”
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.
Social media users posted 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 person as someone else, 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 the person down until two police officers arrived. In an interview Thursday with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Trey Filter of Wichita, Kansas, 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. “They started yelling that, ‘There’s a gun! There’s a gun!'”
Filter said he and another man kept the person pinned until officers arrived. “I remember the officers pulling my feet off of him, and at that point I was just looking for my wife and kids,” he said.
It was not immediately clear whether the person Trey Filter 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 Wednesday by radio station KKFI-FM as Lopez-Galvan, host of “Taste of Tejano.”
Lopez-Galvan, whose DJ name was “Lisa G,” was an extrovert and a devoted mother of two from a prominent Latino family in the area, said Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, 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.
At a news conference Thursday, Dr. Dustin Neel said the first critical patient who arrived had injuries that are usually 90% fatal but received treatment quickly enough to survive.
Stephanie Meyer, chief nursing officer for Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said the hospital treated 12 patients from the rally, including 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15, nine of whom suffered gunshot wounds. All were expected to recover, she said.
She said Thursday at a news conference that only three patients remain at the hospital.
Meyer said that the kids are scared and will need mental health support. The hospital’s staff members are also struggling.
“They’re struggling just like you and I are, and unbelievably heartbroken that this has happened in our backyard,” said Dr. Stephanie Burrus, the hospital’s chief wellbeing officer. “And we all train for this, we’re all prepared to take care of these children. But it doesn’t negate the fact that it’s still not normal for people to see many, many people wounded by gunshots.”
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
