Two men charged with murder in shooting near Kansas City's Super Bowl
rally
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[February 21, 2024]
By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) -Two men are charged with murder for a gunfight on the fringe
of a Super Bowl victory rally in Kansas City, Missouri, that killed one
person and wounded more than 20 others, including the suspects, in a
quarrel over eye contact, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Their arrests - one charged on Tuesday, the other on Feb. 17 - brought
to four the number of suspects facing prosecution in the Valentine's Day
shooting. Two teenagers were taken into custody last week and charged as
juveniles in family court with firearms offenses and resisting arrest.
Prosecutors have said they would seek to also charge the two minors as
adults, and that the investigation was continuing.
The two latest suspects, identified as Dominic Miller, 18, of Kansas
City and Lyndell Mays, 23, of suburban Raytown, each faces charges of
second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and one count
of unlawful use of a weapon.
An account of the bloodshed pieced together from witnesses and video
footage determined the violence started when Mays and a group of
individuals who confronted him "began arguing about why they were
staring at each other," police said in a sworn affidavit filed with the
charges.
"According to court records, the defendants attended a Super Bowl parade
and rally on Feb. 14, 2024, and were armed with firearms," the Jackson
County Prosecutor's Office said in a separate statement. It added: "A
verbal altercation occurred and gunfire broke out with no regard for
thousands of other individuals in the area."
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At a brief news conference announcing the charges, Jackson County
Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the investigation showed the violence
stemmed from an argument between Mays and another person who was a
stranger to him.
Baker told reporters their quarrel "very quickly escalated," with Mays
pulling out a pistol, followed by others in the vicinity "almost
immediately" drawing their weapons.
While both Mays and Miller are charged with murder, Baker said the
evidence shows it was a bullet fired from Miller's weapon that struck
and killed Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan, 43, an on-air radio personality.
Police have previously said she was one of 23 people struck by gunfire,
including at least nine children, but court documents filed against Mays
put the total number of known gunshot victims at 25, including
Lopez-Galvan.
Conviction for second-degree murder in Missouri is punishable by a
prison sentence of 10 to 30 years or life.
'I'M SHOT, I'M SHOT'
The shooting unfolded following a parade and rally near the city's
landmark Union Station, where police said upward of a million fans had
gathered as the Kansas City Chiefs were celebrating their Super Bowl
triumph over the San Francisco 49ers.
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![](../images/022124PIX/news_m80.jpg)
Police officers detain a person outside of Union Station following a
shooting near an outdoor celebration of the NFL champion Chiefs'
Super Bowl victory, in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. February 14, 2024
in this screen grab obtained from social media video. Alyssa
Contreras/via REUTERS/File Photo
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The broadcast of the NFL championship game on Feb. 11 drew a record
television audience, in part due to the heightened media attention
surrounding the romance between the Chiefs' Travis Kelce and pop
superstar Taylor Swift. She attended the Super Bowl but was not
present for the rally.
Probable-cause statements filed by prosecutors in conjunction with
the criminal complaints lodged against Mays and Miller said that
both men were themselves hospitalized by gunshot wounds they
sustained during the violence.
According to those documents, their actions in the crowd were
captured on surveillance video. Miller was tackled by a bystander as
he ran through the crowd with a gun shouting, "I'm shot, I'm shot."
Prosecutors said both men confessed to their roles in the shooting
during hospital interviews with police detectives.
One witness told police she saw Mays approached by four males, one
of whom asked Mays "what he was looking at, because they didn't know
him," and that a firearm was visible hanging from the backpack worn
by one of the four, the affidavit stated.
According to the charging documents filed against Mays two days ago,
he acknowledged he was the first to draw a weapon and the first to
open fire, and that he singled out one individual to shoot at random
as the person was running away.
The probable cause statement said Mays told investigators he
realized there were youngsters in the crowd but believed any one of
them could be armed. It quoted him as recounting to detectives that
he "just pulled a gun out and started shooting. I shouldn't have
done that. Just being stupid."
Both Mays and Miller remained hospitalized in custody on Tuesday, a
spokesperson for the prosecutors office, Michael Mansur said. A
detention hearing was held on Tuesday for the two juvenile suspects,
he said.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by
Eric Beech and Dan Whitcomb; editing by David Ljunggren, Rosalba
O'Brien and Michael Perry)
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