Second man pleads guilty to illegal purchase of gun found at Chiefs rally mass shooting
A 20-year-old Kansas City man is the second person to plead guilty to illegally purchasing a gun found outside Union Station following the mass shooting at the Chiefs Super Bowl rally.
Chaelyn Hendrick Groves pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs in federal court in downtown Kansas City to one count of conspiracy to make false statements in the acquisition of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
The attorney for Groves could not be reached for comment Friday.
On Wednesday, Groves’ co-defendant, 22-year-old Ronnel Dewayne Williams Jr. of Kansas City, pleaded guilty to the same charge. Sentencing has been set for Dec. 11 for Williams and Dec. 12 for Groves. They each face up to five years in federal prison.
Both Groves and Williams admitted that Williams lied to a firearms dealer in Kansas City as he was purchasing a gun on behalf of Groves, who was too young to buy the weapon for himself legally, according to Groves’ plea agreement.
Groves and Williams were two of three Kansas City men charged with violating federal gun laws in connection with the Feb. 14 shooting. The charges allege the men were involved in illegal straw purchases and trafficking of firearms, not that the men were among the shooters.
The case for the other man, 23-year-old Fedo Antonia Manning, is still pending. Manning faces 12 gun-related charges, including conspiracy to traffic firearms, engaging in firearm sales without a license and making false statements on a federal form.
Prosecutors allege Manning served as a straw purchaser for up to 40 guns, seven of which had been transferred to a convicted felon and seven of which were connected to criminal investigations, according to court documents filed last month. Three of the guns were linked to an armed robbery, the Chiefs rally shooting and a homicide.
Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a Johnson County mother of two and beloved party disc jockey in Kansas City, was killed in the shooting that erupted at the Chiefs rally outside Union Station. Police said 25 people were injured by gunfire in the brief flurry of shots, and more than 60 others were injured in the stampede that followed.
The Star’s Nathan Pilling provided some information for this story.
