Two years after Chiefs rally shooting, this family still fights for accountability
Two years after a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally gripped the city, Reba Paul is still searching for some form of accountability for what happened to her brother.
“At this point, we don’t want an apology,” Paul said. “We want something more.”
Denton Loudermill was not shot at the Feb. 14, 2024, shooting that killed one person, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, and injured more than 20 others. But his life was upended that day, his sisters and attorney told The Star.
Loudermill, a father of three from Olathe, was thrust into the public eye when his photograph, decked out in a Chiefs-red sweatsuit, sitting on a curb in handcuffs, began spreading rapidly online. Social media posts, including posts shared by Missouri lawmakers, accused him of being involved in the shooting. Online users called him an “illegal immigrant.”
It was a lie, Paul said.
Loudermill’s sisters — Paul, Stephanie Fairweather and Quintaya Loudermill — and attorney, LaRonna Lassiter Saunders, spoke with The Star for an interview this week to discuss what happened on Feb. 14, 2024, and in the two years since.
What emerged from that interview was an illustration of what supercharged internet rumors can do to a man who just wanted to celebrate his favorite team. It also revealed a family fighting for a brother they lost too soon.
“He wanted to be left alone,” Paul said. “That’s what he wanted.”
Loudermill wasn’t involved in the shooting and previously said he was briefly handcuffed because he didn’t leave the area of the shooting quickly enough. As the false accusations spread, he fought to clear his name. He filed a series of defamation lawsuits against the lawmakers who shared his photo online in the wake of the shooting.
But he also changed, his family told The Star. The man his sisters described as the life of the party began to fear large crowds. He felt trapped. He grew paranoid and withdrawn. He self-medicated. And, on April 11, 2025, Loudermill died (Paul said there were substances found in his system).
As Loudermill’s family grapples with his death, they say he never received an apology from the lawmakers who shared his photo. They haven’t received one either.
“It really says a lot about their character,” said Paul. “The position of power that they hold — and the level of influence that they hold — that they don’t have any compassion.”
In the two years since the mass shooting roiled Kansas City and disrupted Loudermill’s life, the lawmakers at the center of the controversy have advanced in their political careers.
One was elected as the state’s top election official. Another leads the Missouri Senate Education Committee. The third is chair of the Senate’s right-wing Missouri Freedom Caucus.
False posts in Missouri
In the wake of her brother’s death, Paul has taken over as lead plaintiff in the defamation lawsuits against the officials who shared photos of her brother.
Two lawsuits, filed against Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
A third lawsuit, filed against Sen. Nick Schroer, a Defiance Republican, was dismissed. Schroer’s post of Loudermill was the least definitive of the three lawmakers. Arthur Benson, one of Paul’s attorneys, said the lawsuit against Schroer was not refiled because he was sharing another account’s post and did not do much to enhance that post’s accusations.
The remaining lawsuits focus on posts shared online in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 shooting. The X accounts for Brattin and Hoskins, then a state senator from Warrensburg, shared a post from another account that identified Loudermill with a different name and alleged that he was an illegal immigrant.
Both lawmakers’ accounts tagged then-President Joe Biden and suggested that his immigration policies contributed to the shooting.
Spokespeople for Brattin, Hoskins and Schroer did not respond to questions for this story, including whether they had any regrets about their posts or any comment on the anniversary of the 2024 shooting.
At a press conference at the Missouri Capitol in 2024, The Star asked Brattin whether he or Hoskins had apologized to Loudermill.
“There’s nothing that I even see – even worth that,” he said. “So we’ve done nothing. And, you know, I have no comment.”
When Loudermill first filed the lawsuits against the senators in 2024, then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, faced blowback for his decision to defend the lawmakers in court. Bailey’s office argued, among other defenses, that the lawmakers were immune from the suits because they made their posts while serving in their official capacities as legislators.
The move sparked criticism from officials of both parties, including then-Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, who appointed Bailey to the position. Experts told The Star at the time that Bailey’s defense could open the state up to liability.
Under new Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, Missouri is still defending Brattin and Hoskins as the cases wind their way through federal court.
Hanaway’s office and a spokesperson for Gov. Mike Kehoe also did not respond to requests for comment.
Missouri Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican who chaired the Senate’s budget-writing committee at the time, sharply criticized Bailey’s decision to represent the lawmakers in 2024. Hough previously said the move cost taxpayers “an untold amount.”
Two years later, Hough had similar thoughts about his current and former colleagues.
“This just further shows the lack of accountability for the actions of individuals in elected office,” Hough said in an interview. “It’s sad that, you know, in this specific example, these (lawmakers) can shoot from the hip, accuse someone of something on social media, and face no — as far as I know — personal, political, professional consequences.”
The fight for accountability
As Loudermill’s family searches for accountability in the form of litigation, Reba Paul said she would also like to see some legislative changes.
“Some sort of legislation or some sort of change to make them more accountable for the stuff that they write and put out to the public,” she said. “Because they don’t know how it affects the people on the other side.”
When asked whether there was anything she would like to say to the lawmakers who shared posts of her brother, Paul paused for a moment.
“Yeah,” she said. “If they have children, I hope they teach them to do better.”
Saunders, who represents Paul as an attorney and advocate, went a step further.
“We’re going to fight this to the very end,” she said. “It may look like they’re ascending and they’re getting away with it, but they won’t.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
