KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – When gunfire erupted just minutes after the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally in February, many asked how it could happen with more than 800 law enforcement officers on hand in an effort to keep the event safe. It is something one local lawmaker wants to address when the Missouri General Assembly convenes next month.

State Representative Anthony Ealy, a Democrat from Grandview, was among the state and local leaders rushed to the basement of Union Station when the sound of shots punctuated the crowd.

Five days later, he introduced legislation to outlaw bringing readily lethal weapons to a parade and requiring parade sponsors to set up checkpoints for security screening. This session, he has pre-filed a new bill with the same language. He spoke to KCTV5 the day the original bill got its second reading.

“The fact that they were able to even have guns in their backpacks on their persons around hundreds of thousands of people it is just crazy and there has to be an answer to that,” Ealy said.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas ran when he heard the gunfire. He too wants a solution.

“It is an experience that many of us will not forget,” Lucas said. “I think it is important that we not just move on, but we continue to say, ‘How can we make our community safer?’”

The shooting injured at least two dozen people and killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan. Court documents associated with federal gun crimes charges a month later indicated that at least 12 people pulled out guns and six fired.

READ MORE: Three men charged in gun trafficking linked to mass shooting at Chiefs rally

House Bill No. 94 has two components. The criminal portion would add to what fits the crime of unlawful use of weapons.

It currently prohibits bringing a “firearm of any other weapon readily capable of lethal use” into a place of worship, an election precinct on election day, and any government building. The bill would add a “parade zone during parade hours” to restricted places.

That part, Lucas said, gives law enforcement a leg up.

“I particularly like the portion where it bans the carry of those types of weapons in those crowded areas,” he remarked. “I think that is something that could be helpful for all of us.”

The portion of the law that requires parade hosts to create secure checkpoints is one that Lucas concedes is impractical. It could be cost-prohibitive, and it’s logistically difficult to accomplish in such a large area.

The bill requires that people entering a parade zone pass through a metal detector or be “otherwise scanned by security officers to determine whether the person possesses a firearm.”

A checkpoint existed at the NFL Draft in Kansas City in 2023. They are standard at big stadium events and will no doubt be part of World Cup game security. But those are more confined spaces than a parade.

“When you fill up a good chunk of downtown Kansas City, that becomes something that’s harder to put up,” said Lucas. “I think there are a great many challenges relating to how you build a perimeter, how you set things up all around. But I am always willing to have a conversation about how we make our community safer.”

ALSO READ: Gov. Parson speaks on rally shooting; Rep. introduces legislation restricting firearms at parades in Missouri

The parade restrictions in the bill are limited events hosted by governmental entities. A parade zone is defined as the route and “any public area within one mile.”

The rally shooting was a source of physical and emotional trauma for so many who attended. But people sneak guns into places where it’s already illegal, which is why Lucas emphasized that there’s much more to a solution than checkpoints.

“I think for us long term, the real solution, is to figure it out how we get guns off the street, particularly crime guns, those that have been used in crimes again and again; how we make them harder to get for young people, including a lot of our youthful shooters who were involved in this incident,” Lucas said. “We don’t have to live this way.”

Missouri has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation. It no longer requires any training or permit to carry a concealed firearm. That went away in 2017.

KCTV5 reached out to Ealy to discuss HB94. He declined to make himself available, citing scheduling conflicts.

Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.

MISSOURI CITY, Texas – A viral video posted by a Missouri City coffee shop owner says he was bullied by a Starbucks shop, right next door, over a sign advertising his products. 

Bean Here Coffee opened its doors at Highway 6 and Oyster Creek about two years ago. The Starbucks is a recent addition, and the strip of land between them became a sort of battleground.

Mike Ouano opened his first of three local Bean Here Coffee shops eight years ago, after learning how to roast the beans and brew the different types of coffee people might want.

“I know there is a market for people who appreciate locally roasted, artisan coffee,” he says, “I figured, you know, why not take the leap?”

The Philippine-native opened his newest location because he says customers wanted a drive-thru. By all appearances, there’s steady traffic even with his new neighbor. Ouano didn’t think there was any trouble, until recently. 

He posted a video on social media that, he says, shows a manager from Starbucks walking into his shop with a yard-sign that Bean Here had posted facing the coffee competitor. The shocked Ouano says the manager’s message was direct.

 “He was instructed by his district manager to remove the sign, bring it back and talk to us about it,” he says, “That was the point I was like, ‘Well, that wasn’t on your side,’ and he said, ‘We’re just trying to protect our property. You’re free to put it back down, but we’ll always pick it back up.”

The sign now hangs on the coffee shop wall, advertising seasonal beverages. It was posted on a thin, grassy median between the two, along with signs that direct customers to tenants in Ouano’s building.

Since then, he’s got an inflatable gingerbread man facing his neighbor, instead, hopeful for a bit of detente and confidence that there’s room for both of them. 

“I honestly feel that people who come here, there’s a reason they skip that line and come here,” he says, “I think I’ll be ok.”

Ouano says his landlord assures him the median between the two properties is safe to post on. 

In a telephone conversation, a Starbucks spokesman did not offer any type of explanation or apology for what happened, but did tell Fox 26 they will not take any further action on any signs that are posted on that property.

The director of Missouri’s Department of Social Services will resign next month, allowing Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe to choose a new leader for the embattled agency.

Robert Knodell’s last day as director of the department — which oversees foster care, Medicaid, other public assistance programs and services for delinquent youth — will be Jan. 13. He accepted a job to be the city manager of Poplar Bluff, his hometown, on Tuesday.

Knodell has been director since Oct. 2021.

Previously, he worked in Gov. Mike Parson’s office as deputy chief of staff and then acting director for the Department of Health and Senior Services.

In an interview last week, Knodell said his biggest accomplishments leading the agency included helping push for staff pay raises, modernizing technology and putting the child welfare system on a more “positive trajectory” by emphasizing prevention.

“We have to continue to try to do everything as a full continuum to make sure that family needs and children’s needs are being addressed and that safety can be assured,” he said, “to prevent children from having to go into the foster system. And the prevention focus is new for the department.”

During his tenure, the department faced criticism over its administration of public benefits. 

A federal judge earlier this year ruled Missourians were illegally denied food aid by the state due to hourslong call center wait times for participants to receive a required interview. 

The most recent monthly data the state submitted in the lawsuit says the average wait time to get through for its general call line was 43 minutes as of November.  The wait time for the interview line for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was 23 minutes.  

The department in its budget request to the state legislature is asking for $11 million to hire 220 new staff in the Family Support Division to help ensure the agency complies with federal and state rules on timely processing, and “maintains a reasonable wait time in the call centers,” the budget request states. 

The state has also struggled to meet federal guidelines for its processing of Medicaid applications. 

Over the summer, the federal Medicaid agency announced it was intervening to help bring the state back into compliance. According to the most recent federal data, 27% of low-income Missouri Medicaid applications were processed in excess of the 45-day limit in July, which is down from 72% in February.

The department also faced scrutiny for its handling of missing foster kids.

A federal report in 2022 found that there were 1,780 instances of foster kids going missing in Missouri over a two-and-a-half year period that spanned July 2018 to December 2020. The agency last year said it has increased efforts to find missing foster kids. As of the most recent public data, from October, there were 72 foster children categorized as runaways.

That data doesn’t distinguish between missing kids and those whose locations are known but unauthorized, though the department says it collects that data now.

Knodell said one of the challenges has been balancing the desires of those who want as robust a safety net as possible with those who want to control costs. 

“We try to build as strong a safety net as we can, being as responsible a steward of the resources that we have as possible,” he said. “But there is a push and a pull, and there are limits to what the government can do, but certainly we want to do the things that we’ve been tasked as efficiently and effectively as possible. “

Knodell said the social services system in Missouri has “ been underinvested in for so long. But you know, hopefully, we’re pointed in the right direction.”

Parson in a press release Tuesday said “I remain ever grateful that, regardless of the challenges, Robert answered the call to serve in leadership within both DSS and the Department of Health and Senior Services.”