Elizabeth MerrillCloseElizabeth MerrillESPN Senior WriterElizabeth Merrill is a senior writer for ESPN. She previously wrote for The Kansas City Star and The Omaha World-Herald.Follow on XMaria LawsonCloseMaria LawsonMaria Lawson is a reporter in the ESPN investigative and enterprise unit. She is an ESPN-American University investigative fellow from Frisco, Texas.Follow on XOct 15, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
Falsely accused in Chiefs parade shooting, Denton Loudermill Jr.’s family speaks out after his death (4:58)Denton Loudermill Jr. was mistakenly identified as a suspect in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting, and his family shares how the incident deeply affected his life. (4:58)
OLATHE, Kansas — “Is everything OK?” Denton Loudermill Jr. texted his attorney the morning of April 10. Loudermill would check in like that when the weight of everything got too heavy. But LaRonna Lassiter Saunders was on the road and knew she would have to carve out some time for him. She’d call him later.
In a matter of moments, his life was thrown into the social media woodchipper. An image appeared online and caught the attention of news-seekers, and eventually politicians, who in the hours after the shooting labeled him as everything from the gunman to an “illegal” immigrant.
The fact that police released Loudermill a short time later did not make the social media rounds, but the photo of him in handcuffs did. And the man who was outgoing and social, who constantly struck up conversations with strangers, became a pariah — falsely accused of being the shooter.
Searches of “Chiefs parade shooter” on X revealed various photos of Loudermill’s detainment. At the time of this publication, a New York City tabloid social media account still has a picture of him in handcuffs and flanked by police officers.
“‘They got my face all over the news,'” Lassiter Saunders recalled Loudermill telling her shortly after the shooting. “‘I’m just a light-skinned brother that was trying to enjoy my Chiefs.'”
She figured the best way to combat the misinformation was to set the record straight in every possible venue, and within days of the shooting, they appeared on CNN, “Inside Edition” and the local TV stations in Kansas City. It didn’t seem to help.
Loudermill became withdrawn and paranoid, and eventually he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.
He wanted an apology, and when he didn’t get it, he sought justice in the form of lawsuits. He clung to those calls and meetings with Lassiter Saunders, waiting for something or someone to clear his name. She reminded him these things take time.
The autopsy would take months, but during that time, his siblings remained resolved to stand up for their brother and to do what they could to clear his name. The last year of Loudermill’s life is a story of how quickly misinformation can spread — and how slowly, if ever, the truth breaks through.
Through it all, his family remains convinced of one thing: They lost Denton Loudermill Jr. the day of that parade.
Shortly after 11 a.m., the open-top double-decker buses loaded with Chiefs players rolled through the two-mile parade route lined by fans, some of whom had camped out the night before. People climbed trees and street poles or stood on rooftops for better views. Kansas City Public Schools canceled classes for the occasion.
Following the parade, fans assembled outside Union Station for a rally that kicked off just before 1 p.m. Players gave victory speeches, and tight end Travis Kelce sang Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.”
At 1:48 p.m., the rally ended with a final burst of confetti. Less than a minute later, police said, the sound of gunfire was heard on the west side of the stage near Union Station — which was the site of the 2023 NFL draft. According to court documents, the gunfire erupted after one group confronted another for staring at them. Local radio host Lisa Lopez-Galvan was killed and 22 people ages 8 to 47 were injured, police said.
Jackson County prosecutors said three men were arrested in connection with the shooting: Lyndell Mays, Dominic Miller and Terry Young. All three face charges of felony murder and two counts of armed criminal action. Mays is also charged with unlawful use of a weapon and causing a catastrophe, while Miller faces an additional charge of unlawful use of a firearm. Young is also charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
In the moments after the shooting, Loudermill called his sister to tell her what happened. He told Paul he thought a child was shot.
Paul told ESPN that her brother was “a little intoxicated, just like everybody else was down there,” but not slurring or “talking crazy.” She heard police in the background telling him to move, so she told him to “just get out of the way” before his phone went dead.
She tried calling him back and assumed he’d return the call, even joking to herself, “He’ll call me from jail.”
Police said that as officers tried to clear the area, help the injured and get emergency crews through, they briefly detained Loudermill and handcuffed him to prevent interference. No criminal charges were filed, and he wasn’t arrested — but the photo of him sitting on the curb, in handcuffs, was enough for a story to suddenly play out on the public stage.
“He just thought people were taking pictures, you know, because there was a shooting,” Lassiter Saunders said.
“Every single person that I heard from [said], ‘Oh, I know this is not true,'” Paul said. “He would never do anything like that.”
“I was very fearful that it would affect my character, where I was from and the people I’m surrounded by,” she said. “I didn’t want them to view me differently and be like, ‘Oh, she was raised by him. Was he the one that did it?’
“I immediately knew my dad would never do that, but other people that don’t know him don’t know that.”
His children described him as a “big old teddy bear” who, before the parade, was always smiling, happy-go-lucky and energetic. He’d take them to Fairview Park, a recreational space near the railroad tracks where he’d hung out since he was young, and play basketball and have cookouts. They’d go to the zoo and Disney on Ice and eat gas-station pizza.
His mom nicknamed him “Y-A” after Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle, and the name stuck with his siblings. Loudermill valued his time with family and friends.
His own social media life mainly consisted of Facebook interactions. He posted photos of his family, and often sent his siblings dance videos or memes he thought were funny. Paul said most of those happy Facebook Messenger exchanges stopped after the parade shooting.
“No one said Denton was an angel or didn’t have a past,” Lassiter Sauders said. “But nobody knew Denton — these [politicians] did not know Denton. He didn’t have anything to do with that shooting, and so regardless of what his history was … it had no bearing on what they did and said because they didn’t know him from you or I.
“All of this is hindsight, but it didn’t matter because they picked a random individual, did not check their information and essentially ruined his life.”
At a Feb. 22, 2024, news conference in Jefferson City, Missouri, a Kansas City Star reporter asked Brattin whether he had apologized to Loudermill. “There’s nothing that I even see worth that,” he told reporters.
“We’ve done nothing, and you know, I have no comment,” said Brattin, who didn’t respond to messages from ESPN.
Two lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri against Hoskins and Brattin alleged defamation and that Loudermill was falsely identified as an “illegal alien” and a “shooter” at the parade. They originally were filed in Kansas but since refiled in Missouri for jurisdiction reasons.
Loudermill also filed a defamation lawsuit in Kansas against Missouri state Sen. Nick Schroer, which was dismissed. It wasn’t refiled in Missouri because, although Schroer’s account reposted the Missouri Freedom Caucus post, it was asking for clarification on the shooter’s identity rather than pointing at Loudermill.
In response to an ESPN request for comment, a communications manager for Hoskins, now Missouri’s secretary of state, said the “matter doesn’t pertain to the scope or duties of the Missouri secretary of state’s office. As such, the office — nor Secretary Hoskins — can or will comment.”
The deadline to refile the suit against Burchett passed because of difficulties finding a D.C.-based attorney within the statute of limitations in the jurisdiction, Lassiter Saunders said. But the lawsuits against Brattin and Hoskins were refiled. On Oct. 7, a Missouri judge denied requests by Brattin and Hoskins to have the respective suits against them dismissed.
Loudermill thought it was important for Burchett to be held accountable because of his larger platform and position as a member of Congress. Burchett’s personal X account currently has more than 350,000 followers, and his congressional account has more than 180,000.
“My brother wasn’t political,” Fairweather said. “He didn’t vote. He wasn’t involved in that, so it has nothing to do with politics or anything other than he was falsely accused.”
The photo of Loudermill decked in the red sweatsuit and handcuffs continued to stalk him. At the car wash where he worked, his family said, Loudermill would watch people drive up, apparently recognize his face and search their phones.
His attorney said some people would sympathize; others would look scared or angry at him. Lassiter Saunders said he was dealing with that “every day, even up until the day he passed.”
“So then he’s thinking, ‘These people in power, people with money, can do whatever they want and harm whoever they want,'” she said.
She reminded him that the wheels of justice are sometimes slow, but that he hadn’t been forgotten. She told him that they were going to keep fighting. They’d explore everything possible to clear his name and make him whole.
It was their last meeting. A few weeks later, on the last full day of his life, Loudermill sent the early morning text: “Is everything OK?”