Parade violence still hard to come to terms with for witness
By Harry Loomis
Four days after the shooting that took one life and injured 22 others at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade in Kansas City, fans are still trying to come to terms with what happened.
A moment that was meant to be full of joy and pride for the Kansas City Chiefs and Chiefs Kingdom quickly turned into a nightmare for thousands.
“It’s tainted,” said Derek Zimmerman-Guyer, who attended the parade with his girlfriend. “The day’s tainted. The memory is tainted forever, not just for me but for thousands and thousands of people. It’s just going to be haunted.”
Zimmerman-Guyer, a Missouri Western graduate and current director of athletic communications, said he and his girlfriend were exiting the parade facing Union Station when the popping sound many people thought was firecrackers started to go off. It didn’t take long for the crowd to realize the situation was far more serious.
“It looked like a scene out of a movie,” he said. “My instincts were to run. Not just run, but then you grab my better half and flee. Fight or flight kicks in and you never think about it.”
After running away from the scene, it was a 3½ mile walk to the apartment for Zimmerman-Guyer.
“We’re thinking, ‘Just get home, get home, get home,’” Zimmerman-Guyer said. “It hits you in waves where you learn the actual details. News actually comes out pretty much in the dark, the entire walk back because cell service is so bogged down.”
It was one of those moments that everyone hears about, but is impossible to know how to react unless you’re in the middle of it.
“It makes me think twice about going out to events like that,” Zimmerman-Guyer said. “Because again, you never expect it to happen to you. You’re not thinking about that. It’ll definitely make me think twice about if I want to bring my kids to events like that. I don’t have kids, but in the future, you’ve got to. It’s different when you’re with somebody.”
