‘Hatred, propaganda’ led to misidentification of Chiefs rally shooter, Kansas man says

Upon being released by Kansas City police shortly after the mass shooting at Union Station, Denton Loudermill walked a few blocks to sit down for a meal at Wendy’s.

Before he could finish his burger, he said police were surrounding the restaurant.

Loudermill’s phone was buzzing as calls poured in from family members. Moments before, as news broke of the Valentine’s Day shooting at the Super Bowl rally, a photo of Loudermill, in a Chiefs-red sweatsuit, sitting on the curb in handcuffs, started circulating online.

“I started getting phone calls about me being on the TV and computer, about the shooting and what had happened down there. They were making sure I wasn’t arrested,” 48-year-old Loudermill said. “I said, ‘No, I’m at Wendy’s.’ I let them know what happened. And from there, we just tried to figure out what was going on.”

Within minutes, the photo showing Loudermill, hands behind his back, sitting in front of crime scene tape with a stony expression on his face, started warping into misinformation. Social media users took it, creating a firestorm wrongly pinning Loudermill as a gunman in the shooting, as an “illegal” immigrant, as a terrorist.

It was shared across platforms, including by a U.S. congressman, Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Missouri GOP lawmakers.

Within the hour between police taking off Loudermill’s handcuffs and him sitting down for a meal, the photo had spread far enough that someone inside Wendy’s, he said, recognized him and called the police while he was eating.

Loudermill, a Black, Olathe native and father of three, who said he stays away from social media, was not aware his life was taking a sharp turn. But then the threats started.

And now he’s spent the past week working to clear his name.

“I just want everybody to know that I’m innocent and I had nothing to do with it,” Loudermill said. “I think that everybody that put my name through the mud, everybody needs to be held accountable.”

‘Handcuffed on the curb’

A lifelong Chiefs fan, Loudermill had been celebrating his team’s Super Bowl win during the parade and rally in the massive crowd outside Union Station.

As the rally was wrapping up, shots rang out, leading to mass panic.

“Everything went bananas from there,” he said.

The mass shooting killed one woman and injured more than 20 others. Lyndell Mays, 23, of Raytown, and Dominic M. Miller, 18, of Kansas City, each face a count of second-degree felony murder, prosecutors announced Tuesday. They each also have been charged with two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, and are being held on $1 million bond.

Charges were also filed last week against two teens who were being held at the Juvenile Detention Center on gun-related and resisting arrest offenses, the family court division of the Jackson County Circuit Court said.

Officials have signaled that more charges may come for other people involved in the shooting.

“We seek to hold every shooter accountable for their actions on that day — every single one,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said earlier this week. “While we are not there yet on every single individual, we’re going to get there.”

Loudermill said he was in the middle of the crowd outside Union Station when he heard the gunshots shortly before 2 p.m.

“I turned around and looked at the crowd, watching everybody running. It was just chaos,” he said. “The police was trying to get us all out of there. I didn’t run. I just walked. I was taking my time, I guess.”

Police were working to clear and block off the scene. Loudermill said Kansas City officers told him he wasn’t leaving the area quickly enough. They detained him.

“I asked them why are they grabbing me and putting their hands on me. They were trying to push me out of the area,” he said. “They were going to arrest me but they didn’t have a reason to. I was set on the curb, set in handcuffs.”

People started swarming, taking photos and videos of him detained.

Loudermill said after about 30 to 45 minutes, police took him away from the crowd and released him.

“When he was handcuffed on the curb, they didn’t have a reason to arrest him other than he was moving too slow,” Loudermill’s attorney LaRonna Lassiter Saunders said. “I think they tried to do the right thing in the situation by letting him go. But already letting him sit on the curb too long in handcuffs, it started a rumor mill. It went viral.”

Kansas City police have not specified why Loudermill was briefly detained that day. And he has not been charged with any crime stemming from the events on Feb. 14.

Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a Kansas City police spokesman, told The Star in an email that, “there were many people detained at one time or another on Wednesday. Some adults and some juveniles. Some of the detainments could result in future charges unrelated to the shootings.”

“No one who is believed to be involved in the shooting has been released,” he said.

‘A sad day in America’

Loudermill still hasn’t read the social media posts incorrectly accusing him of being one of the gunmen. He instead lets his family fill him in.

But thousands of social media users have shared and commented on posts with the photo of him, spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.

A group of Missouri GOP lawmakers used the debunked posts to attempt to link the Kansas City shooting to illegal immigration. The hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus — as well as at least two of its members — shared posts falsely claiming to identify him as a 44-year-old migrant in the country illegally.

“These are the 3 people arrested at the parade….at least one of those arrested is allegedly an illegal immigrant. CLOSE OUR BORDERS!” the caucus wrote on social media.

The Associated Press quickly debunked the claim as false, reporting that the same name and description were used to promote incorrect claims in a January explosion in Texas and a December shooting in Las Vegas.

The Missouri Freedom Caucus has since shared a post saying, “Denton is an Olathe native, a father of three & a proud @Chiefs fan. He’s not a mass shooter. Images of him being detained for being intoxicated & not moving away from the crime scene at the Chiefs rally have spread online. He just wants to clear his name.”

On the social media platform X, U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, shared a photo of Loudermill and erroneously wrote that one of the Kansas City shooters had been identified as an “illegal Alien.” He later wrote that he removed the post, while including a screenshot of it, blaming “multiple, incorrect news reports.”

Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, also shared a post with Loudermill’s photo talking about whether the shooting will be blamed on “white supremacy and MAGA.”

“I think it’s a sad day in America when you have a tragedy like that, where someone lost their life, several kids were shot, and still at the center of people’s hearts are hate, bigotry and separation by race,” Lassiter Saunders said. “There’s definitely a racial piece there, I believe, because had he been a different race, maybe they would have taken more time or looked into it to figure out what was going on. But it just fit a narrative.”

Loudermill and his attorney are pushing the public figures and officials to apologize and retract their posts spreading the misinformation.

Lassiter Saunders said they are reviewing their legal options, which she called “easier” since some have refused to remove Loudermill’s photo from their pages. They’ve started a GoFundMe page to raise money for his legal fees.

“It’s one thing to run with misinformation initially. It was chaotic,” Lassiter Saunders said. “But once you realize you have misinformation, then correct it. It’s OK to say ‘sorry,’ especially when you know you have an innocent person being affected by it.

“He’s just a fan who was celebrating the Chiefs. But they let hatred, propaganda and bigotry smear his reputation. It’s very sad and unfortunate.”

Loudermill said he’s received death threats over the past week, causing concern for his safety. While he’s at work at an Olathe business, he said he continues to receive weird looks and comments from customers.

Those reactions started almost immediately after the handcuffs were taken off of his wrists, he said.

After the customer called the police on Loudermill while he was at the restaurant following the rally, he said police showed up and patted him down to make sure he didn’t have a gun. He showed them his ID. And then they left.

He sat back down to finish his burger.

“They let me go back to eating,” Loudermill said.

“There are people who will not let go of the lie, who are still angry and hateful,” Lassiter Saunders said. “If they see him, it could potentially lead to harm or danger to his family. That’s why we need as much help as possible pushing the truth out there.”

The Star’s Kacen Bayless and Bill Lukitsch contributed.