Three men face federal gun charges in relation to Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)

Three Missouri men have been charged with federal firearms counts after a shooting at last month's Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade and rally left one person dead and roughly two dozen others injured, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The federal charges were unsealed Wednesday, three weeks after state authorities charged two other men, Lyndell Mays and Dominic Miller, with second-degree murder and several weapons counts for the shootings on Feb. 14. Authorities also last month detained two juveniles on gun-related and resisting arrest charges.

Authorities have said a bullet from Miller’s gun killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan, who was in a nearby crowd of people watching the rally. She was a mother of two and the host of a local radio program called “Taste of Tejano.” The people injured range in age from 8 to 47, according to police.

Named in the new federal charges were 22-year-old Fedo Antonia Manning, Ronnel Dewayne Williams Jr., 21, and Chaelyn Hendrick Groves, 19, all from Kansas City. Manning is charged with one count each of conspiracy to traffic firearms and engaging in firearm sales without a license, and 10 counts of making a false statement on a federal form. Williams and Groves are charged with making false statements in the acquisition of firearms, and lying to a federal agent.

One of the men charged, Fedo Antonia Manning was charged with conspiracy to traffic guns, engaging in gun sales without a license and making a false statement on ATF Form 4473. Court documents describe the purchase and recovery of 15 guns.

One of the guns was recovered on June 26, 2023, by the Columbia Police Department in a wooded area near 3800 West Gibbs Road in Columbia. A statement from the Department of Justice says guns were recovered in Columbia in relation to a murder investigation.

On June 26, Columbia police responded to a home in the 3200 block of Dove Drive for a homicide investigation in the shooting death of Deshon Joseph Houston, 33, who was found dead outside of the home. Police then responded to a second scene in the 3800 block of West Gibbs Street near Interstate 70 Drive Northwest that they said was connected to the Dove Drive scene, according to previous reporting.

Court documents say Manning bought the gun at Alpha Pawn in Kansas City on May 26, 2022. Manning answered “yes” to Question 21a., affirming he was the actual transferee/buyer of the gun and used his driver’s license.

The statement from the Department of Justice says Manning was the straw purchaser of seven guns that were sold to an informant during a separate federal criminal investigation. The release says the informant, who was known to be a felon and therefore prohibited from possessing firearms, purchased 27 guns from two of Manning’s family members and their co-conspirators, who have been indicted in a separate federal case. The release says federal investigators traced Manning’s purchase of 40 guns over a nine-month period, all of which were purchased as receivers.

Court documents that were part of the complaint said 12 people brandished firearms and at least six people fired weapons at the Feb. 14 rally attended by an estimated 1 million people. The rally was just wrapping up when gunfire erupted and people ran for cover. The shooting happened when one group of people confronted another for staring at them, police said.

According to online court records, Manning made his initial appearance Wednesday. He did not have an attorney listed, but asked that one be appointed for him. The online court record for Williams and Groves also did not list any attorneys to comment on their behalf.

A phone call to the federal public defender’s office in Kansas City on Wednesday went unanswered.

The new complaints made public Wednesday do not allege that the men were among the shooters. Instead, they are accused of involvement in straw purchases and trafficking firearms.

“Stopping straw buyers and preventing illegal firearms trafficking is our first line of defense against gun violence,” U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore said in the news release. “At least two of the firearms recovered from the scene of the mass shooting at Union Station were illegally purchased or trafficked.”

Federal prosecutors said that one weapon recovered at the rally scene was an Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 .223-caliber pistol, found along a wall with a backpack next to two AR-15-style firearms and a backpack. The release said the firearm was in the “fire” position with 26 rounds in a magazine capable of holding 30 rounds — meaning some rounds may have been fired from it.

The affidavit stated that Manning bought the AM-15 from a gun store in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a Kansas City suburb, on Aug. 7, 2022. It accuses him of illegally trafficking dozens of firearms, including many AM-15s.

Also recovered at the scene was a Stag Arms 300-caliber pistol that the complaint said was purchased by Williams during a gun show in November. Prosecutors say Williams bought the gun for Groves, who accompanied him to the show but was too young to legally purchase a gun for himself.

Prosecutors say Manning and Williams also bought firearm receivers, gun parts also known as frames that can be built into complete weapons by adding other, sometimes non-regulated components.

The complaint said Manning was the straw buyer of guns later sold to a confidential informant in a separate investigation.

Jim Salter in St. Louis and Lindsey Whitehurst in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. ABC 17 News in Columbia contributed to this report.