Beloved DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan killed in Kansas City parade shooting

Friday, 16 February 2024

It was just like any other Tuesday night. Lisa Lopez-Galvan was on air for her weekly radio show, A Taste of Tejano, sharing her love of music with her local community. The program features Tejano music, a Tex-Mex fusion of Mexican and American musical influences.

“Let us know if you have a birthday, anniversary or special announcement!” Lopez-Galvan wrote before her show, as she often did.

Once the show was over, she and her co-host, Tommy Andrade, parted ways - not knowing that it would be their last time together.

Lopez-Galvan’s life was cut short Wednesday afternoon, when a shooting took place at a rally after a parade marking the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win, transforming a moment of joy and celebration into one of pain and loss.

Thousands of fans had gathered downtown to celebrate the Chiefs’ win when shots rang out near the city’s Union Station around 2pm local time. Red-clad crowds ran for safety as police drew their guns. Eight hundred officers were at the parade and rally, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said.

“It sounded like fireworks,” one witness told the Kansas City Star.

Police said one person was killed and 21 were injured, but have not named any of the victims. They also took three people into custody; a motive remains unknown. Children were among the injured, an official with the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City told reporters.

The station where Lopez-Galvan worked, KKFI, announced her death “with sincere sadness and an extremely heavy and broken heart,” adding: “This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community.”

Andrade, her co-host and a family friend, told The Washington Post that Lopez-Galvan’s husband, Mike, had informed him of her death.

Lopez-Galvan was a mother of two in her mid-40s, Andrade said. She volunteered on the show before joining as a full-time programmer and co-host around two years ago, he said, remembering her as a kind person with an infectious smile. “She treated everyone she knew and loved as close family,” he told The Post. “She will be missed.”

Rosa Izurieta, who had worked with Lopez-Galvan, told the Associated Press that Lopez-Galvan went to the parade with her husband and her adult son, who also was shot. The Post could not independently verify that claim.

Lisa Lopez, a longtime friend of Lopez-Galvan and employee of the Kansas City Star, described her as “the most wonderful, beautiful person.”

“She was a local DJ. She did everybody’s weddings. We all know her. She was so full of life,” Lopez told the newspaper.

Throughout her life, serving others was a key part of Lopez-Galvan’s life - from assisting people who didn’t speak English as a court clerk, to helping people in her local community to find jobs, according to a 2021 profile in local newspaper Dos Mundos. She was bilingual in English and Spanish, her profile on KKFI said.

The last Facebook post she wrote before her final show - where she asked for birthdays, anniversaries or other special occasions - has now become a place for people to mourn a woman they never knew.

But for those who listened or knew her, it’s also a place to remember a kind individual who “always wanted to help others,” as one person wrote.

“I will always remember your big smile and your laugh!” another tribute read.

“Rest in peace, my friend.”