A mother who survived the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade alongside her teen daughter Wednesday said the pair are struggling to cope with the trauma from the terrifying incident.
“I had not slept last night,” Melissa Clardy told “Fox & Friends First” Thursday morning.
“[My daughter] is 16. I think she’s just doing as best as she can right now. She’s struggling.”
Melissa Clardy (left) told Fox News she has lost sleep since the harrowing shooting incident unfolded at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade on Wednesday. (Fox & Friends First/Screengrba & KMBC)
Clardy and her daughter were attending the parade to celebrate the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIIIwin over the San Francisco 49ers when gunfire rang out.
Some fans mistook the sound for fireworks, including Clardy, who told co-host Carley Shimkus she soon realized something was wrong.
“I didn’t see much other than the terror around me. My daughter and I were trying to walk to get out from the parade because it was over, and then all of a sudden we hear gunshots. We thought they were fireworks, and then everybody just starts running right at us [saying], ‘You can’t go this way. You can’t go this way.’ We turned around, and we ran,” she said.
Emergency personnel, left, take a stretcher into Union Station following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
A video making rounds on social media shows a slew of people fleeing the scene after shots rang out. The suspect was later taken down by fans.
In a separate video captured by Alyssa Marsh-Contreras, law enforcement officials were seen standing over a person and placing him in handcuffs.
Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a 44-year-old mother of two, DJ and a Chiefs super fan, was later identified as the only person fatally shot during the incident. More than 20 others were injured.
Video“It doesn’t matter the why. It should have never happened,” Clardy said tearfully as she discussed Lopez-Galvan’s death. She explained that she had been trying to “shut [herself] off” since the incident and had only heard the victim’s name then.
“[I can’t imagine it] at all,” she replied when asked how the loved ones of injured children still in the hospital feel. “Honestly, I’m thankful that they don’t have to. We were lucky, but not everyone was. And my heart goes out to all of these other families, and especially this woman and her children.”
VideoFox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
