Two of the people arrested over a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade are children, according to police, and more than half of the victims are under 16.
The barrage of gunfire outside a nearby former train station in Kansas City, Missouri, sent crowds of fans at the rally running for safety on Wednesday.
One person – a local radio DJ named locally as Lisa Lopez-Galvan – was killed and more than 20 were injured. Three suspects were arrested in the aftermath.
Officers are questioning the three, two of whom are juveniles, police said today.
Police previously said all the victims were hit by gunshots, including seven who were seriously injured and six who were described as “moderately” wounded. They were being treated in three different hospitals.
The team’s stars reacted with horror after the shooting.
The Chiefs’ star quarterback Patrick Mahomes wrote on X: “Praying for Kansas City,” shortly after the incident, while Travis Kelce, a Chiefs linebacker and boyfriend of Taylor Swift, said in a statement on Wednesday: “I am heartbroken over the tragedy that took place today.
“My heart is with all who came out to celebrate with us and have been affected. KC, you mean the world to me.”
The mass shooting unfolded amid huge crowds at the Super Bowl celebration and appeared to stem from an argument between several spectators, authorities said today.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said a mother of two was killed in the violence and she also confirmed 22 people injured in the shooting ranged between the ages of eight and 47 years old.
Half of the wounded were under the age of 16, the police chief added.
Ms Lopez-Galvan was identified by radio station KKFI-FM as the woman killed in the shooting spree.
Her DJ name was “Lisa G” and she hosted a show called “Taste of Tejano”.
Ms Lopez-Galvan was described as an extrovert and devoted mother, according to Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, two childhood friends who worked with her at a staffing company.
“She’s the type of person who would jump in front of a bullet for anybody – that would be Lisa,” Ms Izurieta said.
Stephanie Meyer, chief nursing officer for Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said it was treating 12 patients from the rally, including 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15, many of whom suffered gunshot wounds.
All were expected to recover, she said.
When asked about the condition of the children, Meyer responded: “Fear. The one word I would use to describe what we saw and how they came to us was fear.”
The parade and rally marked the Chiefs’ third Super Bowl in five years and their second in a row.
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Bystander Lisa Money was trying to gather some confetti near the end of the parade when she heard somebody yell, “Down, down, everybody down!”
At first she thought it might be a joke, until she saw the SWAT team jumping over the fence.
Ms Money said: “I can’t believe it really happened. Who in their right mind would do something like this?”
Shocking video posted online showed police running through the packed scene with some performing chest compressions on a victim, as another seemed to writhe in pain on the ground nearby.
Another clip showed two people chase and tackle a person, holding them down until two police officers arrived.
In an interview on Thursday with ABC’s Good Morning America, Trey Filter of Wichita, Kansas, said he saw someone being chased and took action.
It was not immediately clear if the person he held down was involved in the shooting, but one witness saw a gun nearby and picked it up.