KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Two juveniles have been charged with crimes related to the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally, authorities said Friday, as the city tries to recover after the violence.
A Jackson County Family Court news release said the juveniles were charged Thursday and are being held at the county's Juvenile Detention Center “on charges related to weapons and resisting arrest.” The statement says “it is anticipated that additional charges are expected in the future as the investigation by the Kansas City Police Department continues.”
No further information was published. Juvenile court cases are largely kept private under Missouri law and hearings are not open to the public.
Police initially detained three juveniles, but released one who they determined was not involved in the shooting. Police are looking for others who may have been involved and are calling for witnesses, victims and people with videos of the violence on their cellphones to call a dedicated hotline.
Meanwhile, Kansans are turning to religious gatherings, vigils and counseling to try to cope with the horror of what happened.
A mother and a popular disc jockey were killed in Wednesday's volley of gunfire as the parade and rally concluded, and 22 other people, more than half of them children, were wounded. As of Friday, two people remained in critical condition and one in serious condition. Most of the injured children were already out of the hospital and expected to recover.
But the emotional recovery is just beginning in a community horrified that two young people could cause such trauma. Police believe a dispute between several people led to the shooting.
The slain woman was identified by radio station KKFI-FM as Lisa López-Galván, host of “Taste of Tejano.” On Friday, a family friend, Katrina Rojas Vincent, said she could feel López Galván's presence while she was near the scene of the shooting.
“His spirit will always be here to welcome people to this place, so that they will not be afraid, so that they will enjoy and live their life,” Vincent said.
He described López-Galván as a vibrant and generous person.
“I always had a smile from ear to ear and the positivity he brought to our community with the music he played” on his radio show, Vincent said.
The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office organized in-person counseling for the traumatized. Twelve people attended Thursday, including two children, spokesman Michael Mansur said Friday. The agency also set up a hotline offering counseling, but Mansur did not immediately have information on how many called the hotline.
The Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years on Sunday, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime. The two previous celebrations went without problems.
On Wednesday, players rode red double-decker buses around Missouri's largest city. The parade ended with a demonstration at the sprawling Union Station. They were breaking up when gunfire erupted. Many people thought they were hearing fireworks. In the end, some ducked for cover. Others jumped over barriers and ran, many of them carrying children.
Beyond the gunshot wounds, several people were treated in hospitals for injuries suffered in the midst of the chaos. So many personal belongings were left behind that police set up a site for people to try to find what they lost.
Two men at the demonstration jumped up and detained someone with a gun, although police have not confirmed whether it was one of the people arrested.
Paul Contreras of Bellevue, Nebraska, said he heard a man yell to stop someone and was able to tackle the person from behind. Contreras noticed that the person he approached had a gun, he said, and he wasn't sure if he might have another under a thick jacket.
Soon, Contreras was joined by another man.
“We think we have to keep him down until the police get there. Because as much as we fight to keep him down, he's fighting to get up,” Contreras, whose daughter captured the whole thing on video, told The Associated Press.
The man who helped Contreras was Trey Filter. He was with his family when he heard shouts of “get him.”
“We said, 'We've got it,'” Filter, 40, from the Wichita, Kansas, area told AP. “I'll always remember that. And then they started yelling, 'There's a gun!'”
The gun fell near his wife, Casey Filter, who picked it up. By then, the fleeing person was under a pile of people.
The shooting occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police in the area, including atop nearby structures, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran to safety when the shots were fired. . But 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 ever stop. We certainly recognized the public safety challenges and the issues associated with them,” Lucas said.
Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, donated $100,000 to López-Galván's family. Two $50,000 donations were posted under the singer's name on a GoFundMe page on Friday. Swift's rep confirmed the donations to Variety, the trade publication reported, and The Associated Press independently verified the posts.
