KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) 鈥� The man accused of firing the first shots at the told authorities he felt threatened, while a second man said he pulled the trigger because someone was shooting at him, according to court documents.
Experts say that even though the shooting left one bystander dead and roughly two dozen people injured, 23-year-old Lyndell Mays and 18-year-old Dominic Miller might have good cases for self-defense through the state鈥檚 鈥渟tand your ground鈥� law.
Missouri is among more than 30 states that have adopted some version of stand your ground laws over the past two decades, said Robert Spitzer, a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland, whose research focuses on gun policy and politics. While earlier laws allowed people to use force to protect themselves in their homes, stand your ground provides even broader self-defense rights regardless of the location.
Now, the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration could be a new test of those expanded protections, and comes as self-defense already is at the center of another that left Ralph Yarl wounded.
鈥淭his illustrates in a dramatic way the fundamental problem, especially when it鈥檚 a public gathering where there are thousands and thousands of people, and even a highly trained police officer often cannot avoid injuring others in a gunfire exchange in a public place,鈥� said Spitzer, who wrote the book 鈥淕uns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights.鈥�
Trial attorney Daniel Ross described the stand your ground law as a 鈥渇ormidable defense鈥� that he and many other Kansas City defense attorneys anticipate will be used in Mays' and Miller's cases. He said the law puts the onus on the prosecution to disprove claims that a shooting is lawful self-defense.
鈥淐ollateral damage under Missouri law is excused if you鈥檙e actually engaged in lawful self-defense and there鈥檚 other folks injured,鈥� he said.
There are limits to the defense, however, said Eric Ruben, a law professor at the S.M.U. Dedman School of Law in Dallas who has written on stand your ground and self-defense immunity.
鈥淓ven though Missouri has robust stand-your-ground laws, that doesn鈥檛 mean you can spray bullets into a crowd in the name of defending yourself or others,鈥� Ruben said.
The barrage of gunfire Feb. 14 outside Kansas City鈥檚 historic Union Station happened as the celebration that drew an estimated 1 million fans was concluding. A while watching the rally with her family, and nearly two dozen others 鈥� more than half of them children 鈥� were injured and survived.
Kansas City already was grappling with the shooting of Yarl, a Black teenager, who survived a bullet wound to the head when he went to the wrong house in April 2023 to pick up his brothers. Andrew Lester, an 85-year-old white man, is planning to claim when he goes to trial in October. His attorney said the retiree was terrified by the stranger on his doorstep.
While the Super Bowl celebration shooting was a far different scenario, it raises anew questions about how far people can go to protect themselves and what happens when the innocent become victims.
Mays and Miller are each charged with second-degree murder and other counts.
Probable cause statements suggest that both men felt threatened. Mays said he picked out one person in a group at random and started shooting because they said, 鈥淚'm going to get you,鈥� and he took that to mean, 鈥淚'm going to kill you,鈥� the statement said.
Miller said under questioning that he fired four or five times because someone was shooting at him. His friend, Marques Harris, told that Miller was only trying to protect him after he was shot in the neck.
Miller鈥檚 attorney didn鈥檛 return phone and email messages seeking comment. No attorney was listed for Mays in online court records.
Two juveniles also face charges.
Missouri has , and two of its cities 鈥� Kansas City and St. Louis 鈥� annually have among the nation's highest homicide rates. Missouri鈥檚 current Republican lawmakers have largely defended the state鈥檚 gun laws, instead blaming prosecutors and other local elected officials in the two cities.
And Republican Gov. Mike Parson, speaking to reporters last week, cited societal problems 鈥� not guns 鈥� as the reason for the violence. 鈥淚 believe it's much more than a gun," he said.
When expanded the state's already-extensive self-defense protections by enacting the current stand your ground law, Black Missouri lawmakers raised concerns. The law also allowed most adults to without a permit.
Racial disparities are rife among those who invoke the defense, with an study showing white shooters are more likely to benefit than Black defendants.
The issue was raised when , a white teen, was acquitted of killing two people and wounding a third during a 2020 protest against racism and police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after testifying he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse鈥檚 actions became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S.
The shooting death of , a Black 17-year-old, by also spurred concerns about stand your ground laws. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who thought Martin looked suspicious, wasn鈥檛 arrested for 44 days after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting as police in Sanford, Florida, insisted that Florida鈥檚 stand your ground law prohibited charges.
Zimmerman was eventually arrested and charged, but his attorneys chose not to pursue a stand your ground claim, which could have resulted in the dismissal of murder changes as well as immunity from prosecution. But during the trial, the law was essentially used as part of his self-defense argument. Jurors found him not guilty.
In Georgia, which also has a stand your ground law, three white men accused of fatally shooting in 2020 claimed self-defense. Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William 鈥淩oddie鈥� Bryan claimed they chased Arbery, who was Black, because they thought he was a burglar. All three were .
In 2022, Wichita, Kansas, area district attorney Marc Bennett was critical of the state鈥檚 stand your ground law when he announced that he wouldn鈥檛 file charges over the death of , a Black 17-year-old who was restrained facedown for more than 30 minutes at a juvenile detention center. Bennett said the law prevented him from bringing charges because staff members were protecting themselves.
With the Chiefs parade case unfolding, it is time to look anew at these laws, said Melba Pearson, a former homicide prosecutor who is now the director of prosecution projects at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University.
鈥淲hat are truly the limits in terms of stand your ground and what really falls into the category of self-defense?" she asked. "Do we need to revisit what stand your ground looks like?鈥�
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Ballentine reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Heather Hollingsworth, Summer Ballentine And Jim Salter, The Associated Press
