Shop Local KC leader says she won’t live in fear after parade shooting marks third encounter with gun violence

For the third time in two years, Katie Mabry van Dieren and her small businesses have been impacted by gun violence, she shared, and now the advocate for local makers is calling for gun reform.

“It’s unimaginable,” Mabry van Dieren, owner of Shop Local KC and founder of Strawberry Swing, said in the wake of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the end of the Chiefs’ victory rally at Union Station.

Katie Mabry van Dieren, Shop Local KC, Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair

The most recent gun violence — not far from where Mabry van Dieren organized pop-up vendors during the celebratory post-Super Bowl event — follows the Shop Local KC team being held up at gunpoint in 2022 in Midtown and a shooting at her brand’s Crown Center store about a month ago.

“My immediate reaction to the shooting was intense fear, then intense anger,” she shared.

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“(These gun-related incidents) have definitely added unneeded stress, anxiety, and PTSD to my life,” she continued. “The feeling that your team may be in danger is one that I never want to feel again. My team is like my family. I would be devastated if anything happened to them. We must push for gun regulation and make sure that there is more needed to purchase a gun.”

Although Mabry van Dieren was at her shop working on Valentine’s Day flower arrangements and not at the rally, she noted her Strawberry Swing vendors were just off the parade route in tents up on top of the hill at Liberty Memorial, facing Union Station.

They didn’t hear the gunfire or the screams from the deadly shooting, but were clued in when people were quickly vacating the hill.

Strawberry Swing vendors sit on the south side of Liberty Memorial and Union Station; photo courtesy of Katie Mabry Van Dieren

Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Shawnee and a DJ for KKFI radio in Midtown, was killed. Lopez-Galvan went to high school with Mabry van Dieren, who said she was a kind and happy person who always had a smile on her face, and was a friend to everyone.

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Two teenagers were charged Friday in the incident, which also left 23 other victims, ranging in age from 8 to 47. Half of the victims were younger than 16.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, no one knew what to do, fearing for their lives and worrying about abandoning their vendor tables and tents, Mabry van Dieren said.

“They were extremely frightened and felt like sitting ducks because they had nowhere to go,” she explained. “They could not leave their tents/products. Once the all clear was given for them to get their cars and load up, I believe one whole hour had passed since the shooting. So you can imagine how they felt up there.”

The large crowd suddenly being forced to leave the area obviously cut short sales for makers and at her Crown Center shop, she said, but that’s not what matters.

“I would assume we all lost a few thousand dollars of sales due to this violence, but we didn’t lose our lives,” she continued. “My deepest condolences go out to the family of my high school classmate Lisa Lopez, who did lose hers, her entire family, and all of those who were injured or witnessed these horrific events.”

 

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Wednesday’s violence doesn’t make Mabry van Dieren doubt the success and viability of future Strawberry Swing and Shop Local KC events that involve large gatherings, she said. But it is making her raise her voice in a call to action on gun legislation. She noted that — according to Everytown research — Missouri has one of the highest rates of gun deaths, gun homicide rates, and household firearm ownership.

Last year, KCMO saw a record 185 homicides.

“I am not going to live in fear,” Mabry van Dieren continued. “I will not let this stop us from attending or participating in large events. This could happen anywhere due to Missouri’s extremely lax gun laws. It could happen in my neighborhood, at my shops, anywhere. I will work hard to elect officials who will value human life over the gun lobby and hope that nothing like this happens again in our great city.”

She said she’s unsure how these incidents of gun violence are impacting small businesses in the areas where they happen, as two of the incidents that affected her just happened within the past month. She’s hoping it doesn’t make people less likely to come to her stores — in Crown Center and Brookside — or popups, but she understands if they are.

“I do feel like people were less likely to come to my Midtown shop (which closed in 2023) from afar after we were robbed at gunpoint,” she added, “but I do not think people will be less inclined to come to Crown Center.”