Feds say 6 people fired weapons after Kansas City Chiefs rally. Why aren’t more charged?
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One month after a woman was killed and 24 other people were shot following the Kansas City Chiefs victory rally, a recently unsealed federal investigation says at least six people fired guns at Union Station.
The detail, included in an affidavit prepared by a federal agent, further suggests there may be others involved in the shooting who have not been charged with a crime.
Local Kansas City authorities, meanwhile, have declined to say whether other suspects are under investigation.
Asked whether the Kansas City Police Department has yet to identify or apprehend additional suspects, Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a spokesman for the department, on Friday referred questions to state and federal prosecutors. Because charges were filed in the investigation, he said in an emailed statement, any additional details must be released by prosecutors.
Reached by phone Friday, Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, declined to comment on the conclusion reached by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, that at least six people fired weapons, or about the possibility of any additional local charges.
Follow-up questions sent to the ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri were not immediately answered.
What do we know about suspects so far?
Since criminal charges were first announced in Jackson County, local authorities, including Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, have alluded to the possibility of other suspects.
“We seek to hold every shooter accountable for their actions on that day — every single one,” Baker said at the time. “While we are not there yet on every single individual, we’re going to get there.”
No additional cases have been made public in Jackson County since then.
It could be possible that further charges have been filed and are being kept under seal until a criminal defendant is arrested, but authorities do not confirm the existence of criminal charges in such instances.
The rally shooting has been blamed on a dispute between two groups that quickly escalated to gunfire. Bystanders, including children, who accounted for roughly half of those shot, were among the wounded along with at least two alleged shooters.
As of Friday, two men — Lyndell Mays, 23, and Dominic Miller, 18 — faced charges of murder in the killing of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 43, as well as several other felony crimes in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Also charged are two 16-year-olds held in juvenile detention, accused of “gun-related” and resisting arrest offenses.
The Family Court division has refused to release the exact charges the teenagers face. Ages of the juveniles were only disclosed last week after an attorney for The Star sent a letter to the court.
A fifth man also was charged in Jackson County with unlawful weapon possession by a convicted felony. He allegedly picked a gun up off the ground amid the chaos on Feb. 14.
Federal gun charges reveal more details
Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri announced the arrests of three other men suspected to have purchased and illegally resold two of the firearms discovered at the shooting scene.
Authorities do not allege those men were present at the rally. All face charges related to the trafficking of firearms.
The straw purchase investigation was led by the ATF in partnership with Kansas City police. In support of the federal charges, Steven Lester, of the agency, wrote in an affidavit that “12 individuals brandished firearms during the incident and at least six of them fired their weapons.”
The conclusion was based “on the case evidence,” the affidavit says, though the precise method of how that number was reached remains unknown as of Monday.
Court records filed last week largely deal with records of the purchase and sale of several guns by Fedo A. Manning, 22, of Kansas City.
He is accused of trafficking dozens of firearms in the area over the past few years, including some connected to area crimes or in the possession of known criminals. Most have yet to be recovered by law enforcement.
One of the 40 guns Manning allegedly sold was discovered at the Chiefs rally shooting scene. It was among “several” firearms and 22 spent shell casings found in the aftermath of the disorder.
Authorities suspect some evidence, such as shell casings, may have been lost as people ran for cover and emergency vehicles were driven through the shooting scene.
The affidavit filed last week also does not say whether the two guns connected to straw purchases were actually fired. However, one — identified as “Firearm #1” in court documents — had a single bullet in the chamber, and 26 more loaded into a 30-round-capacity magazine.
