One of the accused gunmen at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade has appeared in court for the first time, charged with murder.
Lyndell Mays, 23, appeared briefly in Jackson County Circuit Court Monday and Tuesday after being released from the hospital.
He is accused of firing the first shots in a gunfire that killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan and injured 20 others on Feb. 14 during the team’s Super Bowl victory celebration.
Mays made his first court appearance Monday, but the case was postponed until Tuesday because his attorney John Reed was unable to appear in court. He was in court for a bond hearing, which if lowered could put him back on the street.
The shooting occurred days after Mays was released from probation on a previous weapons case.
Lyndell Mays, 23, appeared briefly in Jackson County Circuit Court Tuesday after being released from the hospital. He is charged with murder in connection with the deadly Super Bowl shooting
Reed, the assigned public defender from law firm Kelly, Reed & Jansen, had the case postponed until March 11 so he could review it.
Mays, also charged with two counts of armed criminal action, was held in the Jackson County Jail after being unable to post $1 million bail.
He is charged with second-degree murder along with Dominic Miller, 18, and two teenage boys face gun charges and resisting arrest.
Mays did not fire the shots that killed Lopez-Galvan, but Missouri law allows murder charges against anyone involved in a deadly crime.
Miller has yet to appear in court as he remains in the hospital being treated for gunshot wounds he suffered during the shooting.
Prosecutors allege Mays confessed to his part in the crime after being shown surveillance footage of him pulling his gun and shooting first.
‘Stupid man. I just pulled out a gun and started shooting. I shouldn’t have done that. Just being stupid,” the complaint alleged he told police.
Mays, also charged with two counts of armed criminal action, was held in the Jackson County Jail after being unable to post $1 million bail.
John Reed, the assigned public defender from the law firm Kelly, Reed & Jansen, had the case postponed until March 11 so he could review it.
Mays did not fire the fatal shots, but Missouri law allows murder charges against anyone involved in a deadly crime
Mays and his friends got into a fight with four teenagers after they demanded to know why he was “looking” at them.
Footage showed Mays aggressively approaching them while his sister tried to stop him. He then pulled out a gun and shot at them.
Some in the other group pulled out weapons and returned fire as Mays chased an unarmed teen while shooting at him. Mays was eventually shot and fell.
He claimed to have fired his gun only twice, but how many times he actually fired was unclear as there were only seven bullets left in a Glock 9mm pistol found at the site where he fell and which 15 can contain bullets.
The gun was previously reported stolen in Kansas City.
He told police “that they all could have had guns, so he randomly chose one of the individuals to target because he was afraid for (his sister’s) life.”
Mays confirmed that he was the first to pull a gun in a crowd of people with children, randomly chose one of the individuals from the group and started shooting, all because they said, “I’m going to get you,” and told him, “That meant: ‘I’m going to kill you,'” the complaint read.
Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and a popular radio DJ, was killed in the crossfire
Half of the 24 people injured in the shooting were under the age of 16
His sister insisted to DailyMail.com that Mays was ‘innocent’ and ‘protecting her’.
“The fact that they mistook my brother for a monster hurts me deep inside because he was just trying to protect us,” she said.
‘He doesn’t deserve to be thrown in like that. My brother is tall and wide, he is big. They were young children and little boys, trying to prove their point.
“They had been looking at him, and they were coming towards us, they were walking closer, they had been staring at him. We can see that they have weapons in their pockets.
“We never walked towards them, they walked towards us.”
‘I asked one boy how old he was, and he said he was fifteen. I was trying to say that we are here to celebrate, we are not here to fight or initiate violence.
“They had been looking at him, and they were coming towards us, they were walking closer, they had been staring at him. We can see that they have weapons in their pockets.
‘We never walked towards them, they walked towards us. I asked one boy how old he was, and he said he was fifteen. “I was trying to say that we are here to celebrate, we are not here to fight or cause violence.”
A woman was seen being carried away from the scene with a large cut on her face
She added that the group’s leader told his friends, “You better get him,” before trying to calm the situation.
“I turned around and heard the gunshots, and it was in slow motion,” she told DailyMail.com.
‘All kinds of things happened and I tried to get out of the danger zone, but I see my brother shooting back.
‘The bullets were flying at him, he wasn’t shooting at them, he was just shooting. I see him fall to the ground. There was a nurse who helped us and saved his life.”
His sister said Mays was not a “monster” and should not be charged with murder.
‘My brother is a homeboy, he doesn’t live on the streets. He stays in the house with his girlfriend and cuddles. He is not a bad person,” she said.
“But who will be a protector for us at the same time? People don’t understand what I saw, and I saw it. However they released it, they turned everything around and it makes me so angry.”
Witnesses claimed this man, seen holding a bloody hand over his mouth, was shot in the face during the fight
Mays’ family set up a fundraiser before he was charged, but canceled it out of fear of retaliation
Mays’ family set up a fundraiser before he was charged, but canceled it out of fear of retaliation.
His mother Teneal Burnside begged for cash and wrote that Mays was going through a “tragic time.”
“He is in intensive care fighting to recover from multiple surgeries, from attending the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration parade with his older sister,” he wrote.
“Being shot multiple times in a moment that was meant to bring so much joy to many bought pain and sadness to everyone who was there.”
His father added, “What was he supposed to do with those guys who came at him with semi-automatic weapons?”
“It wasn’t his gun that killed the woman. We are not safe, the hatred they gave the other man, he was innocent, he received death threats.
People flee after shots were fired near the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on February 14
‘What do you think we’re going to get? It’s a nightmare.
“Our son is not that kind of person, he is a kind-hearted man who got into a bad situation. Those weapons scared him.”
Mays was arrested on April 21, 2021, for pulling out a gun during an argument while playing basketball.
He was convicted on February 8, 2022, and sentenced to five days of shock probation in addition to time served by a district judge, as well as a fine, a 90-day suspended sentence, and two years of unsupervised probation.
According to Police Chief Stacey Graves, the 24 injured people range in age from eight to 47, with half of them under the age of 16.
Another 18 were injured in the stampede as parade participants ran for their lives.