Family of shooting victim recounts harrowing experience at Chiefs Super Bowl celebration
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
One person is dead, and more than 20 others are hurt after a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade on Wednesday.
Mariam Santos had never been to a championship parade before but after watching the Kansas City Chiefs pull off a thrilling comeback victory in overtime to clinch back-to-back Super Bowl titles, her daughter Kat wanted to experience the championship celebration. Kat talked her mother and 70-year-old grandmother into taking her to the parade.
"I convinced her to come 'cause like I really want to go. I’m a teenager so like I want to go places I want to enjoy my youth and I was like you know I’m still underaged so I had to bring her and I want her to have a good time but like gun violence is real," Kat told ABC 17 News.
But what was supposed to be a memorable day quickly turned into an unforgettable one for all the wrong reasons. The Santos family was enjoying the championship parade near the front of the stage when Kat's grandmother wandered off to avoid the smell of marijuana that was lingering in the area.
Before the parade, the family made plans to meet at their car if one of them got separated from the group. Miriam and Kat began walking towards the car when all of a sudden they heard a popping noise in the distance.
Some people in the crowd thought it was fireworks but the Santos family soon realized something wasn't right.
"People began to get down and others began to run," Miriam said. "I was really worried for all the little kids."
"I grabbed her [Miriam] because I didn’t want to start running because it was just going to be a stampede," Kat added. "The trailers where they had all the stuff for the stage and stuff I think that was for were like right next to the sidewalk so I was going to pull her and go under those."
Once the gunfire had stopped the family began searching for Miriam's mother. The family looked near the Union Station parking lot and then tried to reach her by phone. However, they did not have a good enough signal due to the large number of people at the event.
They then went to their car but when they arrived Miriam's mother was nowhere to be found.
"We arrived at the car we were waiting for her. Waiting for her and three hours, four hours, I had to call my friend because we came in her car. Her car is still parked over there," Miriam said as she pointed in the direction of the Union Station parking lot.
After five hours they eventually found her at University Health with a gunshot wound to her leg.
"She felt her leg warm and then she tried to move and then she noticed she started bleeding," Miriam said after visiting her mother in the hospital. "She called a person for help and then she doesn’t remember too much."
Adding insult to injury, Miriam says that her mother had her purse stolen from her while she was on the ground asking for help.
"My mom was hugging her purse and begging the woman, 'Don't take it out from me.' But she took her purse off her," Miriam told an ABC 17 News reporter over text. "I had to buy her another phone the cheapest one was $120."
Miriam's mother was one of 22 people who were wounded in the shooting. The family told ABC 17 News on Friday that she is doing better but doctors said she will still need to spend another three days at University Hospital.
Radio station KKFI in Kansas City also confirmed on Wednesday night that host Lisa Lopez was killed in the shooting. An estimated 1 million people were expected to be in attendance at the parade and rally.
