Two juveniles have been detained in connection with Wednesday’s shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration rally, which left one dead and more than 20 wounded, police said.
At least 23 victims have been identified, including a 43-year-old woman who died, police chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference Thursday. The other 22 victims range in age from 8 to 47, Graves said, adding that half are younger than 16.
The shooting appears to have been a “dispute between several people that ended in gunfire,” Graves said, noting there is no indication of a “nexus to terrorism or homegrown violent extremism.”
Several law enforcement officials similarly told CNN the shooting was believed to have been the result of a personal dispute in the area, and not an attack on the celebration itself.
One of those officials said the people in custody are believed to have been involved in the dispute and that, initially, 10 people were questioned. The status of the other seven who were questioned is unclear.
Police have yet to file any charges, Graves said at Thursday’s news conference, telling reporters the investigation was ongoing and her department was working closely with the office of Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Baker vowed to “get answers” in a post on X Thursday morning, writing in part, “I will use every tool at my disposal under Missouri law that allows me to address this tragedy.”
The gunfire Wednesday erupted after an estimated 1 million people gathered steps from Union Station in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, for the parade and rally to mark the Chiefs’ repeat championship win, sending fans running for cover as law enforcement swarmed the area, confetti still blowing in the wind.
Four hospitals received 30 patients – 19 with gunshot wounds – from the shooting, their staffs told CNN. Children’s Mercy hospital received 11 children between ages 6 and 15 – nine who’d been shot – from the scene, hospital spokesperson Lisa Augustine said. Three children remained in the hospital Thursday. They are expected to recover from their injuries, said Children’s Mercy hospital Chief Nursing Officer Stephanie Meyer.
The shooting was the second in a year at a major US sports title celebration; two people were wounded in June as Denver fans left a parade for the NBA’s Nuggets. It marked yet another place where a sense of safety was punctured by gun violence, with American churches, schools, grocery stores and outlet malls already marred by shootings.
“Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday.
Wednesday’s was at least the 48th mass shooting in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN counts those in which four or more are shot, not including a perpetrator.
