Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a Catholic mother of two and beloved disc jockey for the KKFI radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed Feb. 14 amid a mass shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.
“It is with sincere sadness and an extremely heavy and broken heart that we let our community know that KKFI DJ Lisa Lopez, host of Taste of Tejano lost her life today in the shooting at the KC Chiefs’ rally,” the radio station announced on Facebook that Wednesday evening. “This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community.”
Lopez-Galvan was an active parishioner at Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Parish in Kansas City, Mo., where she was fondly remembered by her fellow parishioners.
Ramona Arroyo, director of religious education at the parish, told OSV News that Lopez-Galvan’s whole family is “devoted to the church.” Her brother, Beto Lopez Jr., is the chief executive officer of Guadalupe Centers, one of the nation’s first social service agencies for the Latino community.
Arroyo said the loss was “devastating” to the community. “She was a beautiful person,” Arroyo said. She expressed her sympathy for Lopez-Galvan’s husband, Michael, saying, “It’s a horrible thing that happened to a good family.”
Monica Palacio, another parishioner who knew Lopez-Galvan, said the shooting was a “tragedy for our whole community because everybody knows the family” and they “grew up within blocks of each other.”
She also noted Lopez-Galvan’s role as host of Tejano Tuesdays at KKFI and as a well-known DJ presence at local weddings and quinceañeras.
“She was an amazing person,” Palacio said. “She was full of joy all the time, no matter where she was.” Palacio remembered Lopez-Galvan as the “life of the party” who “came with red lipstick and a big smile.”
The Kansas City Star reported that Lopez-Galvan, who was in her mid-40s with two adult children, died in the hospital during surgery after a gunshot wound to her abdomen.
Arroyo and Palacio said Lopez-Galvan, a known Chiefs fan, was at the parade with her family, including her son and nieces and nephews, and they had heard that other family members had been injured as well.
Father Luis Suárez, parochial administrator of Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Parish, remembered Lopez-Galvan in his homily at the Ash Wednesday evening Mass and encouraged the community to unite in prayer amid the tragedy.
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