The celebratory atmosphere of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade quickly turned to frantic chaos when shooting began at the end of the parade, and one Chiefs player did what he could to keep people safe and calm.
During an interview with Good Morning America, Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Trey Smith opened up about the terrifying situation, revealing how he brought one kid to safety and helped calm another during the incident.
“Right before I run in there, there’s a little kid in front of me so I just grabbed him and yanked him up and said, ‘You’re hopping in here with me, buddy,'” Smith said. “I don’t know how many people were in the closet, maybe 20-plus.”
After the group was able to safely leave the closet, Smith found another young fan at the Chiefs’ team buses, where people were gathered trying to escape the active shooter situation. Smith decided to calm him by giving him his WWE belt that he had been carrying throughout the parade.
“This little boy was with his father. He was a little hysterical. He just panicked. He was scared. He doesn’t know what’s going on,” Smith said. “I had the WWE belt the entire parade and I was thinking, what can I do to help him out? I just handed him the belt and said, ‘Hey buddy, you’re the champion. No one is gonna hurt you. No one’s gonna hurt you, man. We got your back.'”
Smith said that he talked to the fan for a while about wrestling and his favorite wrestlers just to try to keep him calm.
“He was looking out the window. He was seeing people reacting, trying to get out of the situation. I’m like, ‘Here you go, buddy, this is yours,'” Smith said. “‘No one is gonna hurt you. You’re here with us. You’re going to be A-OK. You’re going to be all right.'”
Smith also said that one of his teammates was “instrumental” in keeping everyone calm, as well.
“One of my teammates, my long snapper James Winchester, was very instrumental in helping keep people calm,” Smith said.
It was a horrifying situation, but it sounds like the Chiefs players stepped up the best they could.
