Elementary school sisters revealed as among 23 victims of Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting
Two elementary school sisters were among the nearly two dozen people injured during the deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory parade earlier this week, family and friends have revealed.
Madison and Melia Reyes, who are in the fourth and third grade, were shot when gunfire rang out at the end of the NFL team’s victory celebration outside the city’s landmark Union Station on Wednesday, the Kansas City Star reported.
“The girls were celebrating with many members of their family when they were senselessly injured,” a GoFundMe page set up for the Reyes family said.
Their mom’s cousin, Lisa Lopez-Gavlan, was the woman who was killed in the shooting, the outlet reported.
The sisters both underwent surgery at the Children’s Mercy Hospital on Wednesday evening and are recovering, according to a rep from the St. Agnes Catholic Parish, which oversees their school.
The extent of their injuries, or where they were hit, wasn’t immediately clear.
Meanwhile, investigators are still trying to untangle exactly who is responsible for Wednesday’s shooting that left Lopez-Gavlan dead and 22 others injured — including many under the age of 16, authorities said.
In total, 11 children were rushed to the children’s hospital, nine of them with gunshot wounds, an official said.
Cops, who quickly ruled out terrorism, said the shooting was likely the result of a personal dispute that exploded into violence — and that three people who may be at fault had been detained.
Two of the three suspects are juveniles, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said Thursday.
“We are working to determine the involvement of others, and it should be noted we have recovered several firearms … This incident is still a very active investigation,” she said.
The mass shooting ruined what was an otherwise joyous celebration commemorating the Chiefs’ recent Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday afternoon.
Just moments before the gunshots rang out, hundreds of thousands of fans had lined the parade route and some even climbed trees and street poles or stood on rooftops to watch as players passed by on double-decker buses.
