The governors of Kansas and Missouri also sent condolences.
The shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, near the parade celebrating the Chiefs’ championship in Super Bowl LVIII, has sparked reactions on all fronts. Among them, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany, who took to their social media to leave their prayers.
Minutes after the first news of the unfortunate events, Mahomes left a simple yet powerful message on his account on X, formerly Twitter: “Praying for Kansas City.”
The message had an instant response, with almost 400,000 views and more than 40,000 likes, had been shared almost 7,000 times, and accumulated just over 800 responses.
Brittany, for her part, left a message on her Instagram Stories saying: “Shooting people is never the answer. Praying for Kansas City & America in general, this is rough.”
The Mahomes’ posts joined those of the governors of Kansas, Laura Kelly, and Missouri, Mike Parson, asking the population for calm.
Praying for Kansas City… 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) February 14, 2024
Responses to Mahomes’ tweet
Among the first responses to the Kansas City Chiefs’ signal-caller message were those who joined the petition: “We are all praying for Kanas city,” “Prayers,” “Tragic. Heartbreaking. Such a great day turned so wrong “Prayers to the families of the victims.”
Others lamented the events: “Can’t even celebrate peacefully,” “There’s no safe place these days. People leave their homes to do harm to others,” “Fans can’t even go to celebrate their team winning a championship without having to be scared about their safety, smh.”
And some took advantage of the forum to ask for more and better gun control in the country. “America needs stronger gun control” was a common comment.
Around 2:15 p.m. local time, police and media reported gunfire around Union Station. The team was in the middle of a pep rally that brought together thousands of fans, celebrating Sunday’s win over the San Francisco 49ers.
The most recent reports indicate that there was one death and nine injured. Of the latter, three are in critical condition, five are in serious condition, and one more has non-life-threatening injuries.
Police reported the capture of two suspects near the west garage of Union Station, but their identities have not been released.