Chiefs rally shooting changed St. Patrick’s event plans. Here’s what organizers say

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In the month since the deadly Super Bowl rally shooting, Kansas City police have dissected plans for such events and made changes before this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Additional security measures were added, which include more officers along the parade route. The agency also designated a new position — which it had been working to create for some time — to coordinate and communicate throughout the department before and during large community events, a Kansas City police spokeswoman said.

And the department has met regularly with parade organizers about any tweaks and safety improvements.

“We consistently reevaluate all plans and responses for how we can improve — and post Super Bowl parade was no different,” Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a police spokeswoman, told The Star in an email. “An in-depth evaluation of planning was conducted to include reviewing the specific assignments of each officer … and the duties and responsibilities of those officers.”

That allows the agency to ensure that officers in each location have specific tasks, she said, “while also keeping officers available along the parade route should they be needed.”

Kansas City police aren’t the only ones who have spent weeks evaluating safety and emergency response plans to make sure they’ve done everything they can to prepare for the area’s St. Patrick’s Day events. Some events were last weekend and some are in the next few days.

“You always worry because when something like that (the shooting at the Super Bowl rally) happens, you think it can happen anywhere,” said Maureen Kronawitter, president of the Irish American Club of Johnson County, which hosted last weekend’s Shawnee parade.

The Feb. 14 shooting outside Union Station — where 25 people were shot, one fatally — shook the city’s sense of security. The goal now is to try to restore it.

Early last week, organizers of upcoming outdoor events and parades met with top law enforcement officials to go over safety plans and emergency responses. Leaders of the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which takes place Sunday and is one of the largest in the nation, put together the event and invited other groups.

“I think everybody had the same attitude (of) ‘Hey, have we missed anything in our crisis management plan, in our safety plan that we need to be aware of?’” said Mindy Hart, a publicist and organizer of this weekend’s Snake Saturday Parade and Festival, a North Kansas City annual event celebrating St. Patrick’s Day that draws tens of thousands of people. “For some of us, it was more of a review.

“But regardless of being review, it was good information and reassuring that, ‘Hey, we’re on the right track.’”

Law enforcement advised organizers of what to look for along the parade route and how to best prepare volunteers. They talked about how to identify suspicious activity and technology and how a large police presence can be a key deterrence at any massive, open-air event.

In the end, some organizers reevaluated and revamped safety and emergency plans. Some procedures were tweaked. And additional steps were implemented to provide more training for volunteers.

“While I believe that our city is the same city it was before this happened, at the end of the day we also have to take these experiences and learn from them,” said Erin Gabert, an organizer of Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “And not that I’m saying that anything could have been done differently, because I certainly don’t believe that.

“But I think we just have the opportunity then to say, ‘OK, what could we do differently? What can we do better? What can we do?’”

It’s critical, Gabert said, to not let one “horrible tragedy define us.” If that happened, she said, it would be a disservice to everyone impacted by the shooting.

“We just want to be a source of joy, like we have been for the past 50 years,” Gabert said of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “We’re a huge tradition for thousands of people and they are counting on us to help keep the spirit of Kansas City alive.

“I think it is an incredible city and our spirit is so much stronger than what happened that day.”

‘It’s a free for all’

Before the Super Bowl parade and rally, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves spoke in general terms of the security plans in place.

“No one is more prepared than us,” Graves said in a news conference with city leaders. “We are going to make sure Kansas City has a safe, fun day.“

In reality, though, law enforcement experts say it’s not so easy to assure total security at a massive, open-air event. Several incidents have shown that.

On the Fourth of July in 2022, authorities accused Robert E. Crimo, III of opening fire at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Prosecutors say he killed seven and wounded dozens. Last June, a shooting occurred in downtown Denver — injuring 10 people, including the suspect — as fans were celebrating a National Basketball Association championship win for the Nuggets.

Then came last month’s parade and rally in downtown Kansas City. Just before 2 p.m. on Feb. 14, gunfire erupted on the west side of Union Station. Elizabeth “Lisa” Lopez-Galvan, 43, a Johnson County mom and local DJ, was shot and died outside Union Station, family members have said.

Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said incidents like the Super Bowl parade and rally are almost impossible to completely secure.

“Think of a combination of factors you have here,” McCabe told The Star. “It’s outside, which means there is no control access point. Anyone can walk up to this crowd and engage in this crowd and find themselves in pretty close proximity to the principals or the people on stage.”

And that’s without, he said, being subjected to any sort of search or review of what they are carrying or what may be in their bag.

“The most fundamental thing you want to do at any large gathering is control the presence of weapons and that’s just not possible in the conditions you have there in a situation like the Super Bowl celebration,” McCabe said. “By definition, it’s a free for all, and then you add to that you’re in an open-carry state.”

Missouri law generally allows firearms to be carried by adults, including anyone over 18, at parades and other large-scale gatherings such as the parade downtown and the rally at Union Station, which were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.

After years of repealed gun laws at the state level, few restrictions remain to put any gun outside the law.

Court documents show that the shooting on Feb. 14 was the result of a dispute.

Lyndell Mays, 23, of Raytown, and Dominic M. Miller, 18, of Kansas City, each faces a count of second-degree felony murder in connection to the rally shooting and the two were also charged with two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Witnesses told police that a group of four males approached Mays and asked what he was looking at. They did not know each other, documents said. An argument broke out. And Mays allegedly pulled out a gun.

Almost immediately, others, including Miller, pulled their firearms. Gunfire erupted and people outside Union Station ran for cover.

Police were faced with a “personal disagreement or beef or something that turns into essentially a mass shooting event,” McCabe said.

“As hard as it is to identify, locate and stop a person who has a plan to attack a specific event,” he said, “it’s infinitely harder to stop an unplanned, spontaneous act of violence in a large population like that in which really anybody could be armed at any moment.”

‘A positive feeling out there’

In the days leading up to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Shawnee, Kronawitter said she didn’t know what to expect as far as crowds.

She had seen comments on social media suggesting some weren’t ready to go to such events.

“I was a little bit worried about, you know, the public showing up,” she said. “If the public would be scared or not, to show up.”

But that wasn’t the case, she said.

“We had a lot of people and the general atmosphere and feeling that I got was all good,” Kronawitter said. “It was definitely a positive feeling out there.”

Organizers of events this weekend don’t know what to expect either. But they are confident in the protocols and plans they have in place.

People need to decide for themselves and their families if they come out to these events like they always have, said Hart, publicist of Snake Saturday.

“The most important piece to the safety of the parade starts with, ‘Are you ready to come out to a public event?’” she said. “And if you are, we’re gonna have done our part to the very best we can to keep you safe.

“That doesn’t mean that there’s not still struggles, that doesn’t mean that someone still couldn’t do any of the things that people have done. But we will have done the level best that we can with the resources available to do our part.”

Hart said it is not lost on her and others involved in various parades and events across the area, that “there’s a lot of trust put in us to do that.”

“And we take it very seriously. Especially this year.”

Soon after the Super Bowl rally shooting, KC’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade canceled its 50th anniversary kick-off celebration for Feb. 18.

At that time, organizers posted a statement on their Facebook page about what Kansas City was experiencing and that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade would go on like it had for the past 49 years.

“Despite the pain and challenges we are facing,” the post said. “we believe in the power of unity and resilience.

“While we understand the gravity of the situation, we also believe that coming together as a community can be a source of solace and support. … We look forward to standing together as a community on March 17th.”