KFF Health News and KCUR are following the tales of individuals injured through the Feb. 14 mass taking pictures on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration. Listen to how survivors are looking for a way of security.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Twenty-four minutes earlier than the mass taking pictures on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade in February left one individual lifeless and at the very least 24 individuals injured, Jenipher Cabrera felt a bullet pierce the again of her proper thigh.
The 20-year-old and her household have been simply 4 blocks from Union Station, in a river of red-shirted Chiefs followers strolling towards the large rally after the parade that heat Valentine’s Day. The bullet — fired by teen boys combating on the street — thrust Cabrera ahead.
She grabbed her mother by the shoulder and signaled in panic to her bleeding leg together with her massive brown eyes, not saying a phrase. Cabrera was being handled in an ambulance when she heard studies blasting from the police radio.
“My mom was trying to get on the ambulance,” Cabrera stated. “I remember them saying, like, ‘You can’t get on. There might be other victims that we need to pick up.’”
Cabrera’s taking pictures occurred earlier than the one which garnered the massive headlines that day and is certainly one of tons of that kill or injure Kansas City-area residents every year. That countless drumbeat of gun violence — from one-off incidents to mass shootings — has shattered the sense of security for individuals who survive. As victims and their households attempt to transfer ahead, reminders of gun violence are inescapable within the media, of their communities, of their day by day lives.
“I look at people differently,” stated James Lemons, who was shot within the thigh on the rally. Now when he’s round strangers he can’t assist however surprise if they’ve a gun and if his youngsters are protected.
The new NFL season opened right here with a moment of silence for Lisa Lopez-Galvan, the one individual killed on the parade. Kansas City has recorded at the very least 124 homicides this yr. Local police say there have been a further 476 “bullet-to-skin victims” — individuals who have been shot and survived. And there have been at least 50 school shootings nationwide by mid-September.
Collectively it’s all taking a toll.
Survivors undergo panic assaults and really feel a heightened sense of hazard in crowds and deep anxieties about the specter of violence wherever in Kansas City.
Since being shot on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in February, James Lemons (left) has targeted a lot of his consideration on defending his household, together with son Jaxson, daughter Kensley, and spouse Brandie. (Bram Sable-Smith/KFF Health News)
Every taking pictures survivor responds in their very own technique to gun violence and even the specter of it, based on LJ Punch, a trauma surgeon by coaching and founding father of the Bullet Related Injury Clinic in St. Louis.
For some, getting shot ensures they are going to at all times be on guard, maybe even armed. Others need nothing to do with weapons ever once more.
“But what’s the common ground? That people desperately want to be safe,” Punch stated.
Cabrera’s search to make that means out of what occurred has led her to work with a annoyed native lawmaker looking for new gun legal guidelines — one thing akin to inconceivable given Missouri state legislation, which prohibits nearly any local restrictions on firearms.
Learning of Other Shootings on the Phone
Feb. 14 is a film in Cabrera’s thoughts, in sluggish movement, body by body, and the soundtrack is her voice, speaking and speaking. She sees a gaggle of rowdy teenage boys working round her and her household. Then two pops — fireworks? Another pop. Finally, a fourth.
“I think that’s where the shock kicked in, and I grabbed my mom,” Cabrera remembered. “I didn’t say anything to her. I just, like, looked at her, and I had, like, my eyes were widened, and I kind of signaled with my eyes to look down at my leg.”
Jenipher Cabrera exhibits her bullet wound from being shot on the way in which to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.(Christopher Smith for KFF Health News)
Cabrera fell and different followers rushed to her rescue, calling 911, and commenced slicing off her leggings. Four males immediately pulled off their belts when requested for a tourniquet. She remembers considering that if she misplaced consciousness, she may die. So she talked and talked. Or so she thought.
One of her rescuers later stated she truly didn’t say a phrase even when he requested what number of fingers he was holding up.
“He told me [that] my eyes were huge, like oranges, and that all I was basically doing was, like, looking up and down four times since he had four fingers up,” Cabrera stated.
Cabrera remembers being moved out of the emergency room at University Health to make room for 12 people who came in from the taking pictures on the rally, together with eight with gunshot wounds. She checked social media on her telephone — one other taking pictures? Unreal. Finally her mother and father discovered her. She spent seven days within the hospital.
When Jenipher Cabrera (left) was being handled in an ambulance after being shot on the way in which to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade, her mom, Josefina, tried to get onboard additionally. But paramedics stated they wanted the area in case there have been different victims to select up. (Christopher Smith for KFF Health News)
Cabrera is grateful to be alive. But she is triggered now when she sees teams of teenage boys cursing and enjoying, or when she sees purple Chiefs shirts. Hearing 4 pops in a row — a daily prevalence in her northeast Kansas City neighborhood — makes Cabrera’s chest swell and she or he braces for a panic assault.
“It runs over and over and over and over in my mind,” she stated.
‘An Increasing Sense of Threat?’
The U.S. surgeon basic declared gun violence a public health crisis in June, however practically any new regulation on weapons is a political nonstarter in Missouri. In truth, a 2021 state legislation — signed at the Kansas City-area gun store the place one of many weapons used within the parade taking pictures was bought — would have barred native police from implementing federal gun legal guidelines. The legislation was struck down by a federal appeals court docket in August.
Missouri has no age restrictions on gun use and possession, though federal legislation largely prohibits juveniles from carrying handguns.
Polling of Missouri voters shows support for requiring background checks and instituting age restrictions for gun purchases, but in addition practically half have been opposed to allowing counties and cities to move their very own gun guidelines.
Per capita, Kansas City, Missouri, is among the many extra violent locations within the nation. From 2014 to 2023, there have been at least 2,175 shootings on this metropolis of 510,000, leaving 1,275 individuals lifeless and 1,624 injured. And whereas murder rates fell in additional than 100 cities throughout the nation final yr, Kansas City recorded its deadliest year on record.
Punch, of the Bullet Related Injury Clinic, likened the violence to a illness outbreak that goes unaddressed and spreads. The state’s permissive posture towards weapons would possibly supercharge the truth in Kansas City, Punch stated, but it surely didn’t begin it.
“So is there something going on? Is there an increasing sense of threat?” Punch requested.
Jason Barton was accustomed to that violence rising up in Kansas City. Now settled in Osawatomie, Kansas, he thought lengthy and onerous about bringing his personal gun for defense when he drove his household to the Super Bowl parade.
Ultimately he determined in opposition to it, surmising that if one thing occurred and he pulled out a gun, he could be arrested or shot.
Barton responded shortly to the taking pictures, which occurred right in front of him and his household. His spouse discovered a bullet in her backpack. His stepdaughter’s legs were burned by sparks from a bullet ricochet.
Despite his worst fears coming true, Barton stated not bringing his gun that day was the proper determination.
“Guns don’t need to be brought into places like that,” he stated.
Jason Barton was apprehensive a couple of mass taking pictures earlier than he drove his household to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in February. The taking pictures, which left one individual lifeless and at the very least 24 extra injured, occurred proper in entrance of them. His spouse, Bridget Barton, discovered a bullet in her backpack, and his stepdaughter, Gabriella Magers-Darger, was burned by sparks from a bullet ricochet. (Christopher Smith for KFF Health News)
‘A 12-Gauge With Teeth’
Mass shootings can derail survivors’ sense of security, based on Heather Martin, a survivor of the Columbine High School taking pictures in 1999 and co-founder of The Rebels Project, which supplies peer assist to survivors of mass trauma.
“Trying to find a way to feel safe again is very common,” Martin stated, “in the years following it.”
James Lemons had at all times felt trepidation about returning to Kansas City, the place he grew up. He even introduced his gun with him to the parade however left it within the automobile on the urging of his spouse. His 5-year-old daughter was on his shoulders when a bullet entered the again of his thigh. He shielded her from the bottom as he fell. What was he realistically going to do with a gun?
And but he can’t assist however surprise “what if.” He can’t shake the sensation that he failed to guard his household. Waking up from goals concerning the parade, “I just start crying,” he stated. He is aware of he hasn’t processed it but however he doesn’t know how one can begin. He has targeted on his household’s security.
They obtained two American bulldogs this summer season, making three complete in the home now — one for every child. Lemons described them as “like having a gun without having a gun.”
“I’ve got a 12-gauge with teeth,” Lemons joked, “just a big, softy protector.”
James Lemons says being shot within the thigh on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade has modified the way in which he views strangers. He can’t assist however surprise if they’ve a gun or if his youngsters shall be protected round them.(Bram Sable-Smith/KFF Health News)
Most nights he sleeps only some hours at a time earlier than waking as much as verify on the youngsters. Usually he’s on the sofa. It’s extra comfy for his leg that’s nonetheless therapeutic, and it helps him keep away from the stressed kicks of his 5-year-old, who has slept together with her mother and father for the reason that parade.
It additionally ensures he’ll be the one to intercept an intruder who breaks into the home.
Emily Tavis, who was shot by way of the leg, discovered solace at her church and from a sister congregation’s in-house therapist.
But then, the Sunday morning after the Donald Trump rally taking pictures in July, the preacher’s sermon turned to gun violence — triggering panic inside her.
“And it just, like, overwhelmed me so much, where I just went to the bathroom,” Tavis stated, “and I just stayed in the bathroom for the rest of the sermon.” Now even attending church provides her pause.
Tavis not too long ago moved into a brand new home in Leavenworth, Kansas, that she is renting from a pal. The pal’s husband cautioned that if Tavis was going to be alone she wanted a gun for defense. She advised him she simply can’t cope with weapons proper now.
“And he’s like, ‘OK, well, take this.’ And he pulls out this giant machete,” Tavis recalled, laughing.
“So I have a machete now.”
Emily Tavis had been discovering solace in her church after being shot by way of the leg on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in February. But when a sermon in July addressed gun violence, it triggered panic inside her.(Christopher Smith for KFF Health News)
A Search for Something Good
Cabrera, the younger lady who couldn’t communicate after being shot, is now making an attempt to make use of her voice within the struggle in opposition to gun violence.
Manny Abarca, a Jackson County, Missouri, legislator, lives down the road. One night, he came around. Cabrera’s mother and father did many of the speaking; she’s shy by nature. But then he turned and requested her instantly: What did she need?
“I just want, like, some justice for my case,” she stated, “or something good to happen.”
Before the parade, Cabrera was provided a manufacturing unit job the place her sister labored, however she hadn’t began as a result of her leg was nonetheless therapeutic. So Abarca provided her an internship, serving to him set up a Jackson County Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a plan he launched in July in response to the parade shootings.
Abarca was within the Chiefs victory parade along with his 5-year-old daughter, Camila. They have been in Union Station when pictures have been fired — and so they huddled in a downstairs toilet.
“I just said, ‘Hey, you know, just be calm. Just be quiet. Let’s just find out what’s going on. Something’s happened,’” Abarca stated. “And then she said, ‘This is a drill.’ And hey, it tore everything out of me, because I was like, she’s referring to her training” at college.
They emerged shaken however protected, solely to study that Lopez-Galvan had died. Abarca knew the 43-year-old mom and standard Tejano DJ by way of the realm’s tight-knit Hispanic group.
Abarca has taken benefit of this heated time after the Super Bowl parade shootings to work on anti-violence measures, regardless of realizing the extreme limitations posed by state legislation.
In June, the Jackson County Legislature handed a measure that provides native enamel to a federal home violence legislation that enables judges to take away firearms from offenders.
But Abarca hasn’t been in a position to get the gun violence workplace authorized, and county officers have refused to take up one other measure that might set up age limits for buying or possessing firearms, fearing a lawsuit from a combative state lawyer basic. He employed Cabrera, he stated, as a result of she is bilingual and he desires her assist as a survivor.
In a way, the work makes Cabrera really feel stronger in her struggle to maneuver ahead from the taking pictures. Still, her household’s notion of security has been shattered, and nobody shall be attending video games or a potential Super Bowl victory parade anytime quickly.
“We just never expected something like that to happen,” she stated. “And so I think we’re gonna be more cautious now and maybe just watch it through TV.”
Bram Sable-Smith:
[email protected],
@besables
Related Topics
src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″>
