Source: Kyle Rivas / Getty
The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, condemned guns in no uncertain terms in the wake of a deadly mass shooting during the Super Bowl-winning, NFL champion Chiefs’ parade on Wednesday.
Mayor Quinton Lucas seemed equally incredulous as well as resigned to the fact that such gun violence could happen despite a heavy police presence at the parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ second consecutive Super Bowl victory and third in five years.
The shooting left at least one person dead and nearly two dozen others injured, including children, according to the most recent reports. Local radio DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a married mother of two, was identified as the person who died from the gun violence.
The deadly episode broke out while more than 800 police officers were assigned to secure the parade. When Lucas, 39, was asked how the shooting could happen on their watch, the mayor issued a blunt rebuke on guns.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas celebrates during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on February 14, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri. | Source: AMY KONTRAS / Getty
“I mean, that’s — that’s what happens with guns,” Lucas responded. “We had over 800 officers there staffed, situated all around Union Station today. We had security in any number of places. Eyes on top of buildings and beyond. And there is still a risk to people.”
Lucas issued a broad challenge to stop such gun violence.
“And I think that’s something that all of us who are parents, who are just regular people living each day, have to decide what we wish to do about it,” he added.
Lucas said the shooting could have happened even if there were more “tremendously hard”-working police officers patrolling the area.
“But in a manner of seconds, someone who wants to disrupt anything, someone who wants to create any type of situation or someone who’s very simply reckless can change not just one life or two lives but almost two dozen,” Lucas continued. “And that to me is absolutely devastating, and it makes me feel vastly more concerned as a parent just in the world today thinking about that.”
Even though the police officers Lucas mentioned were working “tremendously hard” during the parade and ran toward the gunfire, as he said they did, it took members of the public to apprehend at least one of the three suspects in custody. Video footage showed paradegoers tackle an alleged suspect and hold him down before police finally arrived at the scene.
The people in custody were not immediately publicly identified.
Lucas previously made national headlines for other national scourges besides gun violence.
He went viral in 2020 by drawing attention to the topic of voter suppression when he said he was prevented from casting a ballot for himself during his reelection campaign.
A few months later, Lucas placed a bright spotlight on the problem of anti-Black racism in his city over a series of pandemic mandates for the public.
He revealed a series of racist text messages he received after issuing an order for everybody within city limits to wear a mask or face covering while out in public. Lucas, who is Black, tweeted screenshots of the correspondence from an apparent constituent who not only called the mayor the N-word but also said he “should swing from a tree.”
This is America.
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