Kansas City was struggling with shootings long before the Super Bowl

Americans across the country were shocked and shocked Wednesday by the images from Kansas City, Missouri, after shots were fired into a crowd of jubilant paradegoers celebrating the city's Super Bowl victory.

For people well aware of the entrenched violence in Kansas City, the shooting was painfully familiar.

According to figures from the American newspaper Kansas City, 182 people died last year police datasurpassing the previous record set in 2020. With just over 500,000 residents, Kansas City has one of the highest murder rates in the country.

Rosilyn Temple, who founded the Kansas City chapter of Mothers in Charge after her son Antonio was killed in 2011, was at the scene of two separate shootings on Tuesday, the night before the Super Bowl celebration.

“It's going to get a lot of attention,” Ms. Temple said of the shooting at the meeting. But after a year of record homicides in the city, she said, “it was only a matter of time” before a shooting occurred that resulted in a large number of injuries or deaths.

City officials and community leaders have fought for years to reduce gun violence. Many of the homicides hitting record highs in Kansas City are the result of fights or other disputes, whether within families, groups of acquaintances or rival gangs, according to city officials and those involved in violence prevention.

Missouri has some of the least restrictive gun ownership laws in the country, and acquiring a handgun or rifle is not a difficult task. No permit is required for persons 19 years of age and older to carry a concealed handgun.

Police in Kansas City have provided few details about the circumstances surrounding the shooting during the celebration, which left one woman dead and at least 22 people injured. But on Thursday, the city's police chief, Stacey Graves, said the shooting was likely the result of an argument and was not considered an act of terrorism.

A couple who attended the meeting said they witnessed the terrifying scene: As they prepared to leave the meeting, an altercation broke out near them, and two men started shooting at each other, they said Kourtney and Jesse King, who live in Independence, Mo. ., and attended the parade with their children.

“They were running away from each other,” said Mr. King, 41, “but they were still firing guns behind their backs, but not really aiming.”

On Thursday evening, two more people, both under the age of 18, were in pre-trial detention.

Annie Struby, an attorney and advocate for victims of domestic violence in Kansas City, said she held her breath the day of the parade, worried that something might happen there.

When she heard news of the shooting, she immediately wondered if it was related to a conflict that started long before the parade, between people who knew each other.

“It's so incredibly easy for almost anyone to get a firearm,” Ms. Struby said. “It allows for such an immediate escalation of an incident.”

After a sharp increase during the pandemic, homicide rates have fallen in most U.S. cities in 2023, FBI data shows. Most violent and property crimes have also fallen.

But Kansas City remains a stubborn outlier. Of the 20 US cities with the highest homicide rate in 2022, Kansas City was just one of fouralong with Dallas, Memphis and Washington, saw an increase in homicides last year.

“Violence in Kansas City is not new,” said Damon Daniel, the president of the AdHoc Group Against Crime, which provides counseling services to people affected by violence and training in job readiness.

Mr. Daniel, who is keeping a close eye keeps police records on murders, has counted several murders in the city since last weekend.

“We're at one of those points where for many of us it feels like it's going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. But he added that efforts to increase cooperation between law enforcement agencies, nonprofits and municipal agencies were beginning to pay off. “We didn't get here overnight and it won't go away overnight,” he said.

Mike Parson, Missouri's Republican governor and former sheriff, was standing at the back of the stage, in front of Union Station, when shots were fired. Speaking on the radio On Thursday morning, Mr. Parson acknowledged Kansas City's problems with violence but said other cities were “worse by far.”

Violence in Kansas City is concentrated in certain neighborhoods that are also characterized by poverty and misery. A disproportionate number of shootings in the city occur east of Troost Avenue, a major north-south street. Kansas City is somewhat divided both racially and socio-economically by Troost, a divide that has its consequences roots in redlining and intentional racial segregation.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat who has been mayor since 2019, pushed back Thursday on the idea that the parade shooting through downtown, or the gun violence that occurs in residential neighborhoods, has defined the city.

“I don't think this is Kansas City in any way,” he said. “I really think there is a challenge to gun violence in this community and many others.”

But he added that he did not expect the city to stop hosting parades and other events.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, a Democrat and former mayor of Kansas City, said the city's football team was a source of pride and community for residents, bringing people together regardless of racial or ideological differences.

What he fears, he said, is what violence could do to festive events across the country. Would safety concerns keep people away?

“It's starting to tear apart the unity that sports can do, and the Chiefs in particular right now,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Jacey Fortin, Robert Gebeloff And Colbi Edmonds.