‘The day started just like last year’s parade. I just remember the security guards ushering us through the door quickly, like ”hurry up, hurry up, hurry up,”’ Smith, the Chiefs’ starting right guard, told Good Morning America on Thursday.

‘It’s, ”okay, this is not a joke… this is a life or death situation.”’

Smith said he was forced to run for his life and hide in a closet while helping to guide others to safety.

‘Right before I ran in there, there was a little kid in front of me so I just grabbed him and yanked him in, ”you’re hopping in there with me, buddy,”’ Smith said. ‘I don’t know how many people there were in the closet – maybe 20 plus?’

“I’m pretty angry. Due to senseless violence, someone lost their life today … At the end of the day, Kansas City is a great city. We’re gonna stand up together and we’re gonna be strong.”

Chiefs’ player @treysmith details the aftermath of the deadly Super Bowl parade shooting. pic.twitter.com/fQMNSbnvFR

— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 15, 2024

Smith credited long snapper James Winchester for helping everyone to stay calm in the closet.

‘One of my teammates, my long snapper James Winchester, was very instrumental in helping keep people calm,’ Smith continued. ‘We end up getting the green light to be able to get out of there. We end up walking to the buses.’

The Chiefs team buses were suddenly filled with frightened bystanders, including one frightened child who was there with his father.

‘I had the WWE belt on me the entire parade,’ Smith said, referring to the oversized wrestling-style strapped around his waist. ‘I was thinking, what can I do to help him out? I just handed him the belt, ”hey, you’re the champion. No-one’s gonna hurt you man, we got your back.”

‘We just start talking about wrestling, ”who’s your favorite wrestler, what’s your favorite wrestling match.”

‘He was looking out the window and seeing people reacting, trying to get out of that situation, so I just said, ”here you go buddy, this is yours.”’

The 6-foot-5, 322-pound Smith said he was particularly struck by how children reacted to the scene.

‘I’m pretty angry, it’s senseless violence,’ he said. Children were injured, children were traumatized. I’m hurting for the families and the people impacted, and the city of Kansas City.

‘Hearts go out to the guys, we’re thinking and praying for you. But at the end of the day, we’re going to stand up together and we’re going to be strong.’

Wednesday’s shooting outside Union Station happened despite the presence of more than 800 police officers who were in the building and nearby, including on top of nearby structures, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran for safety when the shots rang out.

‘Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe,’ Lucas said.

Three people were detained and firearms were recovered, Police Chief Stacey Graves said at an evening news conference. She said police were still piecing together what happened and did not release details about those who were detained or a possible motive.

‘I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment,’ Graves said.

It is the latest sports celebration in the U.S. to be marred by gun violence, following a shooting that wounded several people last year in Denver after the Nuggets’ NBA championship, and gunfire last year at a parking lot near the Texas Rangers’ World Series championship parade.

Social media users posted shocking video of police running through Wednesday’s crowded scene as people scrambled for cover and fled. One video showed someone apparently performing chest compressions on a victim as another person, seemingly writhing in pain, lay on the ground nearby. People screamed in the background.

Another video showed two people chase and tackle a person, holding them down until two police officers arrived.

Radio station KKFI said via Facebook that Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of ‘Taste of Tejano,’ was killed.

‘This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,’ KKFI said in a statement.

Lopez-Galvan, whose DJ name was ‘Lisa G,’ was an extrovert and devoted mother from a prominent Latino family in the area, said Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, two childhood friends who worked with her at a staffing company. Izurieta said Lopez-Galvan attended the parade with her husband and her adult son, a die-hard Kansas City sports fan who also was shot.