Mother of Kansas City Chiefs shooting suspect started GoFundMe for her son
Lyndell Mays suffered multiple gunshot wounds at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting, which police claim he instigated
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The mother of a Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting suspect started a GoFundMe for her son, who was hospitalised after the shocking incident.
Teneal Burnside reportedly launched a GoFundMe campaign for Lyndell Mays, who was charged this week in connection with the Valentine’s Day shooting that killed one person and injured 22 others. The GoFundMe has since been deleted, The New York Postreported.
Screenshots captured by DailyMail.com show that Ms Burnside identified herself as the parent of Mr Mays, asking for funds to help pay his medical bills. At the time the GoFundMe was posted, Ms Burnside wrote that her son was in the intensive care unit recovering from multiple gunshot wounds sustained during the parade.
“Hes in the ICU fighting for a recovery from several surgeries, from going to the Chiefs Super Bowl celebration with his older sister,” the GoFundMe page read, per the outlet.
The Independent has contacted GoFundMe for comment and has attempted to contact Ms Burnside using information found in public records.
Mr Mays is now being held on a $1m bond after prosecutors in Jackson County, Missouri, charged him with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action.
According to court documents, the shooting began when Mr Mays got into a verbal fight with a group of people at the parade.
Officials believe Mr Mays had no previous history with these people, prosecutor Jean Peters-Baker said at a press conference on Tuesday. Mr Mays pulled his firearm first, Ms Peters-Bakers said, while others followed quickly. He was shot and injured in the incident.
Police interviewed Mr Mays while he was in the hospital. Court documents reveal that Mr Mays admitted to police that he “drew a gun first, in a crowd of people with kids, picked one of the individuals in the group at random, and started shooting”.
He told police he did so because one person said: “I’m going to get you.”
Mr Mays told police he thought that this meant: “I’m going to kill you.”
“Stupid, man,” Mr Mays told police. “Just pulled a gun out and started shooting. I shouldn’t have done that. Just being stupid.”
The Daily Mail reported that they spoke to Mr Mays’ sister, whom they did not name in their report. She defended her brother, according to the outlet.
“For them to make my brother out to be a monster, it really hurts me inside because he was only trying to protect us,” she reportedly told The Daily Mail.
Officials charged Mr Mays alongside Dominic Miller, who faces the same charges. Mr Miller may have fired the shot that killed 43-year-old Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and beloved local radio DJ, Ms Peters-Baker told reporters.
Mr Miller told police he had fired his weapon four to five times after someone pointed their handgun at him during the fight.
During Ms Lopez-Galvan’s autopsy, officials recovered a bullet that a ballistic comparison revealed came from Mr Miller’s gun.