KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A bizarre and tragic Friday unfolded, at least peripherally, for Kansas City's two major sports franchises.
Shortly after 2 p.m., hours before the Royals were to host the Los Angeles Angels at Kauffman Stadium, a gunman shot a female parking lot attendant in parking lot A, east of the stadium. The gunman then returned to his car and shot and killed himself in an apparent murder-suicide attempt.
Kansas City police told The Kansas City Star that the victim, who was on duty at the time, was shot in the stomach and is in critical condition. She underwent surgery at a local hospital at approximately 4 p.m.
The gunman was believed to be the victim's boyfriend or former boyfriend. The victim and the gunman were believed to be in their 40s.
The stadium parking lots quickly reopened for Friday's game as the crowd began to arrive around 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, a man once known to Chiefs fans as "helmet man" at Arrowhead Stadium, apparently created a disturbance around lunch time at a downtown federal building, demanding to know why he was on the "terrorist watch list."
Kansas City police searched the man's car with a robot for a possible bomb. But hours later federal officials said there was no longer a public threat.
According to The Star, authorities tentatively identified the man as Wahed Moharam, who was once a regular at Chiefs games. But the Chiefs, according to the newspaper, revoked his tickets out of safety concerns in 2003 — Moharam was in the federal witness protection program after testifying for the government in the first World Trade Center bombing.
The Star called a phone number linked with Moharam's cleaning service later in the afternoon, and a man who identified himself as Wahed answered, saying he was talking with the FBI.
"Everything is OK," Wahed said. "I don't have to tell you exactly where I am. The FBI requests me to hang up the phone, but I can assure you I'm OK and they treat me good.
"And everything mistake. Everything mistake. I didn't have any bad thing anyway. Everything is just — thank you and God bless you and I'm OK."
Moharam attended Chiefs games in the early 2000s and had someone airbrush his face to resemble a Chiefs helmet prior to each game. He also was known to run up and down the aisles banging a drum.
In 1993, The Star reported that Moharam's testimony helped send two terrorists to prison.
