The “stupid” mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade that left a mom of two dead and 22 others wounded is only in the latest street beef that has turned a major sports celebration into a bloodbath.
The shootout at the Chief’s celebration was allegedly sparked by one group “staring” at another, one of the suspects told police.
Similar conflicts between gun-toting thugs have sparked panic and left dozens injured at three other major sports celebrations in recent months — including following the Texas Rangers’ World Series win in November and the Denver Nuggets’ NBA championship celebration in June.
Ed Davis, the former Boston Police Commissioner who was on duty during the 2013 marathon bombing, said that while a lot of security planning goes into keeping events safe, there’s no way to control how hundreds of thousands of people will behave on any given day, let alone a sports celebration.
“You can’t control when two groups of idiots encounter each other. And, unfortunately, everybody’s carrying guns now,” Davis said.
There were as many as one million fans in attendance at the Chief’s Super Bowl parade last week, where a fight between two groups left one person dead and 22 others injured, including 12 kids.
Lyndell Mays, 23, one of the shooters charged with murder, allegedly told police he initially “hesitated” using his gun given the large crowd and presence of children, but he fired his weapon anyway, according to court docs.
When cops asked what prompted the shooting, he told them, “Stupid, man. Just pulled a gun out and started shooting. I shouldn’t have done that. Just being stupid,” the docs stated.
Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 43, was killed while watching the parade after Dominic Miller, 18, fired at Mays while she was standing behind him, police said.
The fight between Mays and Miller — and their pals in the crowd — broke out in less than 17 seconds, according to cops.
It was a similar story when the Texas Rangers celebrated their first World Series victory on Nov. 3. As many as 700,000 people gathered at Arlington to cheer on the champions, according to local estimates.
While the festivities appeared to be carrying on without a hitch, a violent clash suddenly erupted between two groups of people over a parking space at a nearby parking lot, according to police.
During the brawl, Tommy Phonthalangsy, 37, allegedly pulled out his gun and started shooting into the air, police said.
He was charged with four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful carrying of a weapon by a felon.
While no one was shot during the Rangers’ parade, 10 people were shot at the Denver Nuggets’ first NBA championship celebration on June 13, which was attended by an estimated 750,000 fans.
A total of 20 rounds were fired when Ricardo Vasquez and Raoul Jones got into an argument with Kenneth Blakely over a drug deal taking place in the middle of the parade, police said.
Officials said Blakely likely pointed a gun at Vasquez first, with the man responding by quickly taking out his own gun and firing it at Blakely — and the crowd, striking “multiple parties” before the suspects fled.
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has called for stricter gun legislation following the shooting in Kansas, saying fans have a right to celebrate their teams without fearing for their lives.
“I think unfortunately, I heard one of the coaches say it gets to the point where you don’t want to go to a movie theater, you don’t want to go celebrate a championship, you don’t want to go out to a nightclub, because this just happens time and time again,” Malone said during a press conference last week.
Bill Evans, another former Boston Police Commissioner who has worked security on 12 championship parades, warned that the size of such parades becomes the perfect recipe for disaster.
“When you have that many people hanging around in one place, nothing good is going to happen,” Evans said. “They have to think twice about having these parades.”
These shootings aren’t occurring solely at victory parties, either. Last May, 21 people were injured during three separate shootings in downtown Milwaukee just blocks away from where the Bucks lost to the Boston Celtics during the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals.
Despite the deadly Super Bowl parade shooting, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has not ruled out shutting down future parades. Lucas, however, said that Americans might now have to rethink how cities celebrate winning championships.
“If we’re blessed enough to win a Super Bowl again, do we do this again? Or do we all just say, ‘Go to Arrowhead Stadium. Walk through metal detectors. Have a very secured, vastly smaller event,’” he told local KMBC.
“I think a lot of us, particularly those of us who are thinking about bringing our children somewhere, may ask, at least for a little while, ‘Is this the sort of thing that we want to risk?’” he added.
“It’s a shame that this is what we’ve come to today in America and in our city.”
With Post wires
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Ronny Reyes
