An onlooker at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade Wednesday recounted the moment he tackled a suspected gunman after shots rang out.
On CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, Chiefs fan Paul Contreras described how he stepped into action during the outbreak of violence, which saw at least one fatality along with nearly two dozen others injured.
“I just heard somebody yelling to stop this guy, tackle him, and he was coming in the opposite direction, so I just—you don’t think about it. It’s just a reaction. He got close to me, I got the right angle on him, and I hit him from behind, and when I hit him from behind, I either jarred the gun out of his hand or out of his sleeve, because as I’m taking him down to the ground, I see the gun on the ground,” Contreras said.
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An unverified video from along the parade route appeared to show the scene Contreras described.
After taking the man to the ground, Contreras said he pinned him down until police could arrive—along with several bystanders who ran to help.
“So I take him down and I’m putting all my body weight on him, and then another good Samaritan comes over and is helping me because I kind of got him high and the other guy gets him around his waist, and we’re just putting our weight on him and he’s just fighting to get up, but we’re fighting to keep him down,” he recalled.
Contreras added that it was only after he had tackled the suspect that he became aware that he had been armed. He also didn’t get a look at his face, he said.
Contreras’ daughter, Alyssa Marsh-Contreras, then offered her account of what had transpired.
“It all happened so fast… but it wasn’t long after the celebration was all done [that] everybody was kind of dispersed and going back to their cars,” she said. “Probably a minute or so later and you just hear, ‘pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.’ And like I said, we were at a celebration and I think a lot of people thought it was fireworks because nobody really ran or anything.”
Another bystander near the shooting, John O’Connor, told the Kansas City Star that that’s indeed what he first thought the sounds were.
“I assumed that if people, you know, noticed it was gunshots or something, that we all would have been out of there really quick,” Marsh-Contreras continued. “But then as soon as we see people getting chased and then cops running and then not long after, my dad tackling somebody, it changed to, ‘OK, those weren’t fireworks for the celebration. It was gunshots.’”
NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday also spoke with two others at the parade who were involved in apprehending the alleged shooter.
Wichita, Kansas, resident Trey Filter described hearing calls for the suspect to be tackled.
“I turn, I see a flash, and I think to myself, ‘I hope that’s him.’ There was really no—I didn’t see him coming,” he said. “All I recall was barely seeing the guy. And I couldn't believe I caught him, and… I was just thinking ‘Man, sure hope that’s him,’ because there was just so much going on.”
He and Contreras “were elated when we knew we got him,” Filter added.
Filter’s wife, Casey, moved the gun well out of arm’s reach of the suspect once he had been taken down.
“I didn’t expect to just have it at my feet,” she said, “and I just saw it and just moved it.”
