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Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally shootings were ‘preventable,' lawsuit alleges

James Lemons, who was shot in the right thigh, on June 7, the day he had his stitches taken out after surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his leg. Lemons’ family was helped by Unite KC with insurance payments to tide them over until Lemons returns to work.
Peggy Lowe
/
KCUR 89.3
James Lemons, who was shot in the right thigh, on June 7, the day he had his stitches taken out after surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his leg. Lemons’ family was helped by Unite KC with insurance payments to tide them over until Lemons returns to work.

A Harrisonville man who was shot at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade and rally last year has sued the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission, saying it was a "preventable mass shooting," and fans should have been protected.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, James Lemons, 40, says he was shot and his family endangered by the commission’s failure to bar firearms and provide a safe environment, which they had a “legal duty” to provide. That negligence, the suit said, exposed fans to an “unacceptable and foreseeable risk of harm.”

Dave Borchardt, a commission spokesman, said only that they are aware of the lawsuit, “disagree with its assertions” and that the commission’s insurance company is handling the case.

Twenty-four people were injured and Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a popular Tejano DJ, was killed during the shootings, which happened around 2 p.m. as the rally was coming to a close outside Union Station. The Jackson County Prosecutor accused three adults and three juveniles of the shootings.

The lawsuit alleges the commission had provided “stringent security measures” at a different past event at Union Station, which was redacted from the suit, and provided “comprehensive safety protocols.” That included barring weapons, erecting barriers around Union Station and making the more than 300,000 attendees use one of only three entrances, where they were screened, the suit said.

The commission also knew that Missouri has some of the loosest gun laws in the country and Kansas City recorded a record high number of homicides in 2023, the suit said.

“Despite the well-documented risks associated with large public gatherings and the heightened concerns surrounding gun violence in Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission failed to implement adequate security measures to protect the thousands of attendees who gathered in front of Union Station,” the suit said.

The lawsuit seeks financial damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical expenses, court costs and punitive damages.

Copyright 2025 KCUR 89.3

Peggy Lowe joined Harvest Public Media in 2011, returning to the Midwest after 22 years as a journalist in Denver and Southern California. Most recently she was at The Orange County Register, where she was a multimedia producer and writer. In Denver she worked for The Associated Press, The Denver Post and the late, great Rocky Mountain News. She was on the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Columbine. Peggy was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2008-09. She is from O'Neill, the Irish Capital of Nebraska, and now lives in Kansas City. Based at KCUR, Peggy is the analyst for The Harvest Network and often reports for Harvest Public Media.
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