The authorities in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., mentioned on Thursday {that a} taking pictures that tore via the town’s Tremendous Bowl celebration, killing one particular person and wounding almost two dozen others, appeared to have stemmed from an argument between a number of individuals.
Stacey Graves, the town’s police chief, mentioned there was no indication that the taking pictures was related to terrorism. Not less than 22 individuals had been wounded, along with the lady who died, they usually ranged in age from 8 to 47 years previous, Chief Graves mentioned. Not less than half of the wounded had been youthful than 16.
The authorities have mentioned that three individuals had been detained in connection to the taking pictures on Wednesday afternoon. Two of them, the police mentioned, had been youthful than 18. No prices have been filed.
“I’m angered about what occurred in our metropolis yesterday,” Chief Graves mentioned.
The one that died was recognized as Elizabeth Galvan, 43, a neighborhood D.J. who was also referred to as Lisa Lopez-Galvan. A pal described her as a passionate fan of the town’s soccer staff who was deeply concerned in civic occasions and hosted a radio present.
The shooting erupted as hundreds of soccer followers had crowded into downtown Kansas Metropolis after the Chiefs’ Tremendous Bowl win, all of a sudden turning a day of revelry into certainly one of chaos and panic. As photographs rang out, individuals ran for canopy.
Chief Graves praised the response of her division’s officers and firefighters, and likewise famous that civilians themselves had sprung into motion. Movies had captured two parade attendees tackling an individual as others ran from gunshots.
“It was only a response,” Paul Contreras, who mentioned he had tackled a person after listening to another person yell to cease him, told NBC’s “Today” show. “I took him down, and as I took him down, I noticed the weapon — the gun — fall to the bottom,” he mentioned.
Movies confirmed that two males held the particular person down till police arrived. Chief Graves lauded the efforts.
“These in attendance additionally responded,” Chief Graves mentioned. “They helped each other and even bodily stopped an individual who was believed to be concerned within the incident.”
The taking pictures happened close to the town’s Union Station, a hub that draws tourists to the town annually.
The shock of gun violence pierced an in any other case idyllic winter afternoon, with vivid sunshine and temperatures within the 60s greeting a metropolis able to rejoice in what had become close to an annual rite of February as Kansas Metropolis’s staff has turn into the dominant drive within the Nationwide Soccer League.
Columns of followers, many carrying crimson, had lined the two-mile parade route, celebrating the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ second consecutive Tremendous Bowl victory and third in 5 seasons, waving at gamers, coaches and staff officers using previous in open-top crimson buses.
Among the many crowd was Ms. Lopez-Galvan, the D.J., whose radio present, “Style of Tejano,” was broadcast on KKFI, a local radio station. She had two younger grownup youngsters, a son and a daughter, and the radio station mentioned in a social media submit on Thursday that the son, Marc, had been shot within the leg however was handled at a hospital and launched.
Ms. Lopez-Galvan was recognized to look at soccer video games with shut pals in her storage, in keeping with one pal. That pal, Lisa Lopez, mentioned she and Ms. Lopez-Galvan, who weren’t associated, would usually name one another “tocaya,” Spanish for “namesake.”
Ms. Lopez described Ms. Lopez-Galvan because the lifetime of the occasion, and mentioned she had lately joined a bunch that helped to prepare Fiesta Hispana, an annual competition in downtown Kansas Metropolis.
“She was cherished by everyone in our neighborhood,” mentioned Ms. Lopez, who’s an government administrative assistant at The Kansas Metropolis Star newspaper. “Our Hispanic neighborhood misplaced a fantastic, great particular person.”
Ms. Lopez mentioned that her pal additionally had been a giant fan of the Chiefs. Ms. Lopez-Galvan was superstitious about watching the staff’s video games every week with the identical individuals, hoping it was good luck for the staff, her pal recalled. Actually, she mentioned, Ms. Lopez-Galvan wouldn’t let anybody new be part of the group.
After Kansas Metropolis gained the Tremendous Bowl on Sunday, Ms. Lopez-Galvan had texted Ms. Lopez to ask if she might save her a newspaper commemorating the staff’s win.
The Tremendous Bowl parade formally started at 11 a.m. and ended with a rally at Union Station, the century-old rail depot that has been redeveloped right into a vacation spot with outlets, eating places and a science heart.
The Kansas Metropolis gamers had been simply leaving a stage when Vanessa Waterfield, 36, who was standing close by, heard a sequence of gunshots.
She and her greatest pal, Shayla Burst, 24, like many round them, didn’t know the place to go. Some ran. Some stayed put. The 2 pals tried to run, however they received pushed backward by panicking attendees.
“We nearly received stampeded on,” Ms. Burst mentioned. The worst half got here as the 2 pals had been fleeing: They noticed a girl fall face first to the bottom — after which cease transferring. They puzzled if she had been shot, they usually ran, clambering over barricades till, sobbing and shaking, they took refuge at a close-by lodge.
The 2 girls, each of whom dwell in Kansas Metropolis, mentioned they might be cautious of crowded locations any more. And Ms. Waterfield, who had taken off her crimson Chiefs jacket within the sizzling solar and tied it round her waist earlier than the taking pictures started, now associates it with one thing very completely different than a giddy Tremendous Bowl victory. “I’m prepared to only throw that away,” she mentioned, “each time I take a look at it.”
Native hospitals mentioned on Thursday that that they had not less than seven individuals nonetheless in therapy, together with not less than two sufferers in crucial situation. Of the 12 sufferers taken to at least one hospital, Youngsters’s Mercy, 11 had been youngsters between the ages of 6 and 15.
Jacob Gooch Sr. mentioned he was standing close to the southwest facet of Union Station when, like others within the space, he heard noises that seemed like fireworks. When his ankle felt sizzling, he thought a spark had burned him. Actually, he had been shot, and he fell when he tried to run away.
As he tried to crawl to security, Mr. Gooch misplaced his group, which included his girlfriend and son, who he mentioned had been each additionally shot. His son, he mentioned, now has a bullet lodged within the backside of his foot.
“I can’t consider my household received hit,” Mr. Gooch mentioned. “It’s loopy to assume somebody had a gun pointed at you and pulled the set off.”
Moments after she heard gunshots, Chasitty Logsdon, a 39-year-old nurse from Louisville, Ky., mentioned she ran over to a person on the bottom close by, blood pooling round him. A lady beside the person instructed Ms. Logsdon that he had been shot within the head, so Ms. Logsdon took his pulse and began doing compressions. As soon as medics arrived, Ms. Logsdon mentioned, they took over. She mentioned she knew she needed to do what she might to attempt to save the person.
“If that was my somebody,” Ms. Logsdon mentioned she remembered considering, “I’d need the identical factor.”
The governors of Kansas and Missouri had been each on the rally however weren’t damage.
Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas Metropolis, Mo., mentioned he was on the parade along with his spouse and mom, and was in Union Station when he heard gunfire.
“When you may have individuals who determine to convey weapons to occasions, when you may have people who find themselves deciding to attempt to mar occasions — celebratory ones, like this one — all of us begin to turn into members of this membership that none of us need to be part of,” Mr. Lucas mentioned.
Kansas Metropolis gamers posted messages of assist on social media. Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback who led his staff to victory over San Francisco on Sunday, mentioned he was “praying for Kansas Metropolis.” The tight finish Travis Kelce wrote that he was “heartbroken,” including, “KC, you imply the world to me.”
However, irrespective of the age of these caught up within the mayhem, the gunfire in Kansas Metropolis was a reminder how unsettling that world can really feel.
Dana Brady and her 14-year-old daughter, Madison, additionally sought to flee once they heard a “pop, pop, pop,” Ms. Brady recalled. They froze for a second, then a blur of individuals ran towards them, she mentioned, and Ms. Brady and her daughter started attempting to climb over barricades searching for security. Finally, they bumped into Union Station, sitting down beside a girl and her younger youngsters, who had been crying.
“We talked about this at school,” one of many youngsters mentioned. “To show off our telephones and be very quiet.”
Reporting was contributed by Traci Angel, Gaya Gupta, Robert Gebeloff, Jesus Jiménez and Ben Shpigel. Susan C. Beachy and Sheelagh McNeill contributed analysis.