One Dead, Children Among 21 Injured In Super Bowl Parade Shooting
One person was killed and children were among the 21 injured after a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally on Wednesday triggered panic among huge crowds of fans.
Shots rang out moments after jubilant Chiefs players addressed a vast, cheering crowd, sending shocked fans and VIPs fleeing in a tragic end to what had been a joyous morning of celebrating the NFL champions.
Police said three people had been taken into custody after the attack near Kansas City’s Union Station, but the motive behind the shooting was still under investigation.
Fire department chief Ross Grundyson told a press conference that many of the victims had sustained “life-threatening injuries.”
Local officials said more than one million people were expected for the parade, which was held in unseasonably sunny, warm conditions in downtown Kansas City.
Mass shootings are common in the United States, where there are more guns than people and about a third of adults own a firearm.
The attack in Kansas City wasn’t even the only shooting to grab national headlines Wednesday: four students were also shot outside an Atlanta high school, while three police officers were shot during a standoff in the capital Washington. All are expected to survive, according to media reports.
The shootings came six years to the day after 17 people were killed in an attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
“There is something so depressingly American about experiencing a mass shooting at a Super Bowl celebration on the anniversary of another mass shooting,” posted March For Our Lives, a student-led advocacy group seeking gun control that formed after that shooting in Parkland, a suburb of Miami.
Polls show a majority of Americans favor stricter gun regulations, the powerful firearms lobby and mobilized voters supporting the country’s culture of strong gun rights have repeatedly stymied lawmakers from acting.
The Chiefs were celebrating their third Super Bowl title in five seasons after beating the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas on Sunday.
The team’s most famous fan — music superstar Taylor Swift, whose relationship with beau Kelce has become a cultural phenomenon — was not part of the celebrations.
She was reportedly en route to Australia, where she is due to perform in Melbourne on Friday.