Chiefs offensive tackle Trey Smith brought a WWE title belt to Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade. He and a million others celebrated his team’s win over the 49ers.
Smith had no idea that the sparkly title belt would help calm down a hysterical little boy after something horrible happened on a holiday of an afternoon. A shooting interrupted the joy. One woman died of her wounds. Police said first responders transported nearly two dozen people, many of them children, to area hospitals.
Smith said that police ushered he and his Chiefs teammates off the stage and inside Union Station, which had been the site of last year’s NFL Draft and a Super Bowl parade. From there, he and deep snapper James Winchester sheltered in a closet with others.
“Right before I ran 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,'” the Chiefs tackle said in an interview with Good Morning America. “I don’t know how many people were in the closet, maybe 20-plus.”
Chiefs tackle said he told little boy ‘we got your back’
Smith said Winchester also was a calming influence for so many scared Chiefs fans.
The Chiefs players walked back to the team buses after police gave them the all clear. However, the police were using the buses to transport as many people possible from the scene. Smith met the little boy and his father on the bus.
“He was a little hysterical,” Smith said of the youngster. “He just panicked. (And) he was scared, he doesn’t know what’s going on. 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 continued to talk to the little boy, even gifting him the belt. “‘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. … You’re here with us. You’re going to be A-OK (and) you’re going to be all right.'”
Smith told GMA he still was so angry over the shooting. Local police ruled out terrorism, domestic or foreign. Instead, police believe the mass shooting happened as a result of a dispute. KC police detained three people, two of them juveniles.
“Due to senseless violence, someone lost their life,” the Chiefs tackle told GMA. He said he saw several injured children and traumatized kids.
“I’m hurting for, one, the families of the people who got impacted,” Smith said. And “the city of Kansas City.”
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