what we know about the Kansas City shooting during the Super Bowl parade, which left at least one dead

Shooters opened fire on spectators at the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City on Wednesday, leaving at least one dead and 21 injured.

The Superbowl parade on Wednesday February 14 turned into a tragedy. The Chiefs were celebrating their victory in the streets of Kansas City, Missouri, a state in the central United States, when a shooting broke out at the end of the festivities. The provisional report shows at least one dead and 21 injured, more than half of whom are children. Three people were arrested immediately.

A parade with nearly a million spectators

It was a parade the Americans like. They did it with the astronauts who returned from the Moon, they do it with their victorious athletes. Wednesday was the return of the champions, winners of the biggest sporting event in the country: the Super Bowl, the final of the American football championship (NFL), which brought together 125 million spectators in front of their screens.

There were nearly a million people in the streets of Kansas City, where many residents had put on their red jerseys in the colors of the Chiefs. Jerseys often flocked with 15s and 87s, the numbers of the two stars of the team, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift’s companion.

One dead and around twenty injured, three people arrested

But the parade ended in panic. In the square in front of the old Union Station, shots that some initially took for fireworks rang out. Three people were arrested, including a man who was wearing a team-colored tracksuit. At this stage, the authorities have not communicated on the identity or motives of the suspects.

One person died in the shooting and 21 people were injured. Children’s Mercy Hospital said it was treating twelve injured people from the gathering, including eleven children aged 6 to 15. Eight life-threatening patients were taken to hospitals within 10 minutes of the shooting, Kansas City Fire Chief Ross Grundyson said at a news conference.

A strong police presence

The human toll is heavy despite the massive presence of law enforcement, with more than 800 agents on site according to police chief Stacey Graves: 600 city police officers and nearly 250 federal agents. “We had security guards in many places, looking out at the tops of buildings and beyond, but there is always a risk to people”lamented the city’s Democratic mayor Quinton Lucas.

Little regulation of gun carrying in Missouri

At least two people, maybe three, came with guns and used them. “This is what’s happening with guns.”, annoyed the mayor of Kansas City. Because the state of Missouri does not require anything special to obtain a weapon. You just need to be over 18 and have no convictions, there is no need for a license, no background check and no requirement to take any special gun safety training. “Parades, rallies, schools, cinemas, it seems that almost no place is safe”, Quinton Lucas was moved. There are more weapons than inhabitants EUnited States, with one in three adults owning at least one.