Kansas City authorities investigating motives behind what led up to Super Bowl parade mass shooting

Written by on February 16, 2024

Kansas City authorities investigating motives behind what led up to Super Bowl parade mass shooting
Police officers investigate the scene of a shooting where at least one person was killed and more than 20 others were injured after the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on Feb. 14, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Authorities are continuing to investigate the motive behind the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade that left one person dead and 22 others injured earlier this week.

As of Friday morning, two juvenile suspects have been detained, though formal charges against them have not yet been filed, according to Kansas City police.

Officials are now working with juvenile prosecutors “to review investigative findings and determine applicable charges,” a police spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Thursday evening.

Initially, three people were detained as suspects in the shooting but the third person — also a juvenile — has since been determined not to be involved with the shooting and was released from police custody, according to the police spokesperson.

At least half of the victims involved in the mass shooting are under the age of 16, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said Thursday, and fire officials said the victims included eight critically hurt and seven seriously hurt.

Children’s Mercy Hospital said it received 11 children, ranging in age from 6 to 15, though hospital officials did not specify if the 6-year-old was wounded by gunfire or injured in the resulting chaos. In total, nine of the children taken to Mercy Hospital had been shot, officials said, while three remain at the hospital on Friday morning.

All of those victims are expected to recover, officials said.

Elsewhere, University Health said it received eight gunshot patients, including two who remain in critical condition Thursday.

The shooting unfolded outside Union Station as Chiefs fans were leaving a parade and rally on Wednesday as more than 800 law enforcement officers were on duty in the area containing an estimated 1 million people attending the celebration, according to Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Several guns were recovered following the incident that, police say, appeared to stem from a dispute, though officials have not yet disclosed what that dispute could have been about and how it may have escalated to the mass shooting.

The victim who was killed has been named as 44-year-old Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a DJ at local radio station, who leaves behind her husband and two young children.

“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” the radio station said in a statement Wednesday.

“We woke up this morning excited and the last thing we ever expected was to have a tragedy in our family,” her brother, Beto Lopez, told ABC News.

So far this year, there have been at least 48 mass shootings in the United States, with 81 killed and 165 wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The investigation into the mass shooting is currently ongoing.

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