How many shooters? What motives? Several questions remain unanswered Thursday in Kansas City, the day after shootings that left one dead and more than 20 injured during the parade celebrating the Super Bowl victory in this city in the central United States.
Tens of thousands of people were celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs football team — who marched through the streets of this Missouri city after their Super Bowl victory on Sunday — when shots rang out near the Union Station parking lot, towards the end of the celebration.
At least one person died and 21 others were injured, Kansas City Fire Chief Ross Grundyson said at a press conference a few hours after the tragedy.
Local radio station KKFI announced on its Facebook page that one of its hosts, Lisa Lopez, had died in the shooting.
Children’s Mercy Hospital said it was treating 12 injured people from the gathering, including 11 children ages 6 to 15.
Nine were hit by firearms, but all are expected to recover from their injuries, a spokesperson for this pediatric establishment told AFP.
Three people were arrested and they are “under investigation for today’s events,” Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves said in the evening.
However, the identity of these suspects, their exact involvement in the shootings, as well as their potential motives have not been revealed.
Police have launched a call for testimony from anyone who “directly observed the shootings, has video of the shootings, or is a victim of the shootings who has not yet reported.”
An FBI platform has also been set up to collect videos that could help the investigation.
“Senseless epidemic”
The event adds to the long list of tragedies caused by firearms in the United States, which pay a very heavy price for their spread across the country and the ease with which Americans have access to them.
On Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden again called on Congress to legislate to curb gun violence in the country. Referring to a “tragedy”, the American president said he prays “for those killed and injured today in Kansas City”, but also “for our country so that it finds the determination to put an end to this senseless epidemic of gun violence fire that tears us apart.
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and almost one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.
The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, incomparable to that of other developed countries.
About 49,000 people died from gunfire in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
The United States Congress has not adopted an ambitious law for a long time, with many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the leading American arms lobby.
The mayor of Kansas City, who was present with his family during the parade, said he was “angry”.
A parade to celebrate a Super Bowl victory, “it’s a day that many people hope to remember for the rest of their lives; and what they shouldn’t have to remember is the threat posed by gun violence,” Quinton Lucas said at a news conference.