Judge tosses suits against 3 lawmakers over posts after Chiefs Super Bowl Rally shooting
KANSAS CITY, Kansas — A judge has filed three more lawsuits against lawmakers who shared social media posts falsely accusing a Kansas man of being one of the gunmen who opened fire at a rally celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win.
Denton Loudermill Jr., who was briefly handcuffed but not charged in the chaos that followed the fatal shooting on Feb. 14, submitted federal lawsuits against three Republican Missouri state senators: Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County.
The dismissal of those lawsuits comes Monday, a month after a similar lawsuit took place rejected against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee.
The judge cited jurisdictional issues. Loudermill, who is from Olathe, Kansas, filed a complaint in federal court in Kansas, rather than in Missouri, where the lawmakers were from.
Loudermill’s attorney, Arthur Benson, said he planned to refile the lawsuits soon. Benson previously said he also plans to refile a lawsuit against Burchett in Washington, D.C., where the congressman was when he posted about Loudermill on social media.
The shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri killed a well-known DJ and injured more than twenty others, including many children.
According to Loudermill’s lawsuits, he froze when the gunfire erupted and stood in the middle of the chaos for so long that police had put up crime scene tape by the time he finally started walking away. As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and placed him on the sidewalk, where people began taking photos and posting them on social media, the suits said.
Loudermill was eventually escorted from the area and told he was free to go.
But soon posts appeared on X, formerly known as Twitter, including a photo of Loudermill, a car wash worker who was born and raised in the US. The messages referred to him as an “illegal alien” and a “shooter,” even though he was not involved, the complaint said.
Versions of those messages, one from Burchett, were then reposted on the accounts of the three Missouri lawmakers, accompanied by comments from the lawmakers.
Schroer asked police for confirmation or denial when he reposted the message from Burchett’s account.
“I have received videos or photos showing at least six different people who were arrested yesterday but have been officially told that only three remain in custody,” Schroer wrote on social media about Burchett’s post. “The people deserve answers.”
After the judge’s ruling, Schroer described the lawsuits in a statement as frivolous and said he was “exploring all available legal options against individuals and media outlets who knowingly spread fake news instead of what I actually asked on social media.”
Hoskins said in a statement that he agreed with the judge’s decision and “would continue to pray for the innocent victims of the Kansas City parade shooting.”
Brattin said elected officials “should have the right to speak publicly on issues of public safety, without fear of liberal media elites creating false narratives in an effort to destroy their credibility and provoke frivolous legal attacks.”
The judge had denied the argument that the three senators were protected by “legislative immunity” in their roles as lawmakers.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, which defended the three senators, praised the ruling.
“Questions about Missouri law belong in Missouri courts, not remote courts in other states,” spokesperson Madeline Sieren said in a statement. “We’ve said that from day one. Missourians should be assured that they have an attorney general who will always follow the law, even when it is not easy.”