Two adults have been charged with murder following last week’s deadly mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade celebrating the team’s Super Bowl victory.
via People:
Dominic M. Miller of Kansas City, Mo., and Lyndell Mays of Raytown, Mo., were each charged with second-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Tuesday.
Miller is 18 or 19 years old, according to local KMBC. Mays is 23. The two men are both being held on $1 million bond.
Their arrests come days after authorities announced that two teenagers were charged with gun-related and resisting arrest charges in connection with the shooting, according to The Associated Press. The shooting injured 22 people and killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and a radio DJ for local KKFI 90.1 FM. More than half of the 22 people shot were under the age of 16.
The two juveniles may possibly face trial as adults given the circumstances, KMBC reported.
It’s not immediately clear if any of the suspects have entered pleas or retained attorneys.
The shooting took place last Wednesday when “a verbal altercation occurred and gunfire broke out with no regard for thousands of other individuals in the area,” Baker said in a news release announcing the charges.
At a press conference Tuesday, Baker broke down the alleged series of events that led to the shooting.
“From the evidence, it appears that [Mays] was in a verbal argument with another individual,” Baker alleged, clarifying that Mays didn’t know the individual beforehand.
“That argument very quickly escalated to Mays drawing his firearm, a handgun,” Baker alleged. “Mays pulled his handgun first. Almost immediately, others pulled their firearms. Defendant Miller was one of those individuals. While both adults are charged with murder, the evidence tells us that it was Mr. Miller’s firearm [that] struck Lisa Lopez-Galvan.”
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves described the men’s alleged actions as “reckless” when she spoke at Tuesday’s press conference, and the city’s mayor Quinton Lucas said “consequences must be swift, certain, and severe.”
Baker said “this investigation is still very, very active and ongoing” and continued to ask for anyone injured while trying to flee the shooting to reach out to investigators.
“We seek to hold every shooter accountable for their actions on that day,” Baker said. “Every single one.”
Members of the Kansas City Chiefs have since spoken out about last week’s deadly shooting. Travis Kelce called the mass shooting “deeply tragic” this week and donated $100,000 to two girls who were shot and recovering, while Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany Mahomes visited several children in the hospital last week.
“Just like #ChiefsKingdom has always been there for me and my family, we want to be there for them,” Mahomes, 28, tweeted last week, announcing an emergency response fund to help victims and their families pay for their recovery. More than $860,000 had been raised as of Tuesday afternoon.
Something has to be done about gun violence in this country.
