KANSAS CITY, MO. — The parade and rally were over, but the Kansas City Chiefs weren’t done celebrating their Super Bowl victory when the party turned deadly Wednesday.
Now, the athletes are trying to process the mass shooting and violence that rocked Kansas City, Mo.
Star tight end Travis Kelce said in a post on X that he was “heartbroken” by the downtown rampage that killed one person and left at least 20 others with gunshot wounds.
“My heart is with all who came out to celebrate with us and have been affected. KC, you mean the world to me,” Kelce said.
Kelce’s girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, did not appear to be at the celebrations Wednesday and has not commented on the shooting.
Quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes was quick to post that he was “Praying for Kansas City.”
Trey Smith, a guard for the Chiefs, told NBC News that he didn’t know what was going on when he was rushed off stage and into Union Station to take shelter. By the time he got inside, he and his teammates had learned there was an active shooter.
After hiding in a closet, he said, they got a green light from police and were ushered to a bus to evacuate. That was when Smith came across a nervous young boy in the back of the bus.
Smith said the boy was a “part of our organization,” but did not identify him.
The athlete, who had obtained a WWE belt earlier in the parade, decided to show the boy the belt and talk wrestling, “just to calm his nerves.”
“I was just trying to just, you know, sort of find some common ground with wrestling,” Smith said. “I just wanted to take his mind off of the moment right now and just let him have a moment of happiness.”
A motive for the shooting is not clear, police said, and three people have been detained.
Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney reposted a video on X of Kansas City police detaining a person and wrote, “I hope this guy never sees the light of day again.”
Linebacker Drue Tranquill called the shooting a “heinous act” on X, adding his prayer that “doctors & first responders would have steady hands & that all would experience full healing.”
Other teammates called for change.
“When are we going to fix these gun laws?” defensive end Charles Omenihu wrote in an X post. “How many more people have to die to say enough is enough. It’s too easy for the wrong people to obtain guns in America and that’s a FACT.”
Chiefs safety Justin Reid called the shooting “SAD” in a post on X and said “we cannot allow this to be normal.”
“Kids are being shot and somebody didn’t come home tonight. … We cannot ourselves to become numb and chalk it up to ‘just another shooting in America’ and reduce people in statistics and then move on tmrw,” he added. “This is a SERIOUS PROBLEM!! I pray our leaders enact real solutions so our kids’ kids won’t know this violence.”
