‘Went from one of the best days of our lives to something so tragic’: Brother of Chiefs player speaks on parade shooting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Celebrating a family member's accomplishment should always occur without tragedy. But that, unfortunately, wasn’t possible on Wednesday.
A man who is the brother of a Super Bowl champion was willing to speak about his experience at Union Station after shots rang out following a rally to celebrate the Chiefs’ victory.
The mass shooting that unfolded Wednesday amid hundreds of thousands of people at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration appeared to stem from a "dispute" between several people, authorities said Thursday.
One person was killed in the shooting and more than 20 people were injured. Among those shot included nine children that were brought to Children's Mercy Hospital, six have already been discharged and the rest are expected to recover. More victims were brought to the Truman Medical Center, and a University Health spokesman said on Thursday that three gunshot victims are still being treated, two of which are in critical condition.
Panyin Boye-Doe is the brother of Chiefs defensive back Ekow Boye-Doe. He said the families of the players were in a designated area just below the stage in front of Union Station during the rally. As the players were leaving the stage, family members were making their way into the building when Boye-Doe said he saw paramedics running and people trying to run into Union Station.
"So initially, like they weren't allowing people back into Union Station. They were, like, trying to check for credentials," Panyin Boye-Doe said. "I think they were trying to limit the amount of people that were going to go in. But then I think they realized... how serious the situation was. So then they just kept telling people to come in and and we all started to rush in there."
Boye-Doe said that no one knew what was going on when several Chiefs family members and cheerleaders hid in a bathroom. As Boye-Doe and the others were hiding, he said he was still trying process the situation they were in.
"It took me a while because I feel like I didn't understand until I saw the people like, start to cry. And like parents try to explain to their kids that, like, it was just fireworks and not gunshots to try to get them to calm down," Boye-Doe said. "But it was just, yeah, I feel like I was trying to just be as calm as possible and try to think positive thoughts because I feel like we didn't need any more people to freak out, you know?"
Ekow Boye-Doe and his brother are from Lawrence, Kansas, and have been life long Chiefs fans, so it was a big deal for the family that he was signed by the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent this season and was able to celebrate a Super Bowl.
"Everybody was having such a great time. We were having so much fun...went from... one of the best days of our lives to... something so tragic," Panyin Boy-Doe said.
Union Station was closed on Thursday out of respect to those affected by the shooting, it wrote on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter. Union Station announced on Thursday night that it would reopen on Friday.
