Taylor Swift donates $135k to family of slain Kansas City Chiefs fan

LOS ANGELES — Pop superstar Taylor Swift has donated US$100,000 (S$134,580) to the family of the woman slain in a shooting near a rally for the Kansas City Chiefs where the singer’s boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, and his teammates were celebrating their Super Bowl victory.

The Grammy Award-winning performer’s two contributions of US$50,000 each were posted early on Friday (Feb 16) to the GoFundMe memorial page set up by relatives of Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan, a Kansas City radio personality who was the lone fatality in Wednesday’s gun violence. She was 43.

A message left with the donations on the page reads: “Sending my deepest sympathies and condolences in the wake of your devastating loss. With love, Taylor Swift.”

Representatives for the singer confirmed to CNN and the showbiz trade publication Variety that the contributions from Swift were authentic.

By midday, the GoFundMe page showed that the family for Lopez-Galvan, a disc jockey and host “Taste of Tejano” on KKFI radio, had raised nearly US$280,000, including Swift’s donations, far surpassing the fund’s US$75,000 goal.

A message at the top of the page said the fund was intended to provide “vital financial support” to the loved ones of Lopez-Galvan, who was a married mother of two, “as they process this unthinkable tragedy.”

Twenty-two other people, including nine children, were struck by gunfire in Wednesday’s violence, which unfolded near the city’s downtown Union Station just as the Chiefs’ rally celebrating their Super Bowl triumph over the San Francisco 49ers was concluding.

Swift, who attended the Super Bowl game on Sunday, was absent from Wednesday’s celebration after having returned to her concert tour schedule in Australia, but Kelce and other players were at the rally when the gunfire erupted.

Police have said the shooting stemmed from a quarrel among several people incidental to the event itself.

Two teenagers arrested shortly after the bloodshed have been charged in family court as juveniles in the case with firearms violations and resisting arrest.

Prosecutors have said they would seek to charge the two as adults, and police said they were seeking other individuals who might have been involved.