Two men were charged with murder in the shooting that killed a person and injured at least 22 others after a parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win last week, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Dominic Miller of Kansas City and Lyndell Mays of Raytown, Mo., face charges of second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker (D) said at a news conference.
Mays was arrested over the weekend and Miller was arrested Monday night, said Michael Mansur, a spokesperson for Baker. Both men, who were shot, according to court records, remain in the hospital with law enforcement officers guarding them, Baker said.
It was unclear whether Mays and Miller had retained attorneys as of Tuesday evening. Both are being held on a $1 million bond, prosecutors said.
At Tuesday’s news conference, Baker indicated that charges would be filed against more people and did not answer questions about how many shooters there were or the numbers and types of firearms they used. Two juveniles were charged with gun-related offenses and resisting arrest last week.
Prosecutors also released new information Tuesday about what they’d previously described as a personal dispute, detailing how Mays and Miller allegedly drew firearms during a verbal altercation involving at least four other people.
“That argument very quickly escalated,” Baker said.
On Wednesday, Mays had been arguing with another person near the Union Station entertainment hub just after a rally where Chiefs players and staffers had addressed a crowd of thousands. Mays did not know the other person, Baker said.
A person who was standing with Mays later told police that she saw a group of four men approach him, including one who had a firearm hanging out from their backpack, according to a probable cause statement. The witness, who was not identified in the publicly available document, said one of the four men asked Mays what he was looking at, which led to an argument.
Mays eventually took out a firearm before others, including Miller, reciprocated.
Mays then chased an unidentified person, who the documents state was unarmed, and appeared to open fire. He was then hit by gunfire and fell, according to the documents. Mays later told police he had drawn a firearm first and had fired two shots. Police recovered a stolen Glock 9mm handgun on the ground near where Mays had fallen, with a live round in the chamber, the documents say.
Officers came across Miller at a road median, the documents say. A person had seen Miller running while yelling, “I’m shot.” The witness saw that Miller was carrying a firearm and tackled him, taking the weapon away, according to the documents. The person who tackled him was not named in the documents. It was not clear whether Miller was the person tackled in widely shared videos of bystanders taking down an armed person after the shooting.
When detectives interviewed Miller, he said he had been carrying a 9mm handgun and fired four or five shots, according to the document. Detectives said a bullet recovered from the autopsy of the woman who died in the shooting, Elizabeth “Lisa” Lopez-Galvan, matched the gun Miller fired.
On Friday, when detectives asked Mays why he had taken out a firearm during the argument, he responded with: “Stupid, man. Just pulled a gun out and started shooting,” according to a probable cause statement.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Mays continued. “Just being stupid.”
If convicted of second-degree murder, the most serious of the charges, Mays and Miller could face life in prison, Baker said Tuesday.
In the days since the shooting, the Kansas City community has been grieving.
Lopez-Galvan, 43, was known across the community for DJing special occasions and as a host for her Tejano-music show at radio station KKFI. A fundraiser in her memory had brought in more than $375,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, buoyed by large donations from celebrities such as Taylor Swift.
Lopez-Galvan’s family members did not attend the news conference where the charges were announced, but Baker read a statement they had written, thanking the agencies that are investigating the shooting and had brought charges.
“Though it does not bring back our beloved Lisa, it is comforting to know that the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office and the KCPD made it a top priority to seek justice for Lisa, the other shooting victims and those who had to witness this tragedy unfold in the Kansas City community,” the statement said.
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Victoria Bisset, Annie Gowen, Niha Masih and Joanna Slater contributed to this report.
