Paul Contreras attended Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade to celebrate a win for the Kansas City Chiefs.
But before the day was done, he tackled one of the alleged gunman suspected of turning the day of celebration into one of shock and sadness by shooting into the crowd of revelers.
“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,” Contreras, who was there with his three daughters, told CNN. “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 ’cause as I’m taking him down to the ground, I see the gun on the ground.”
As Contreras took the man down, he was aided by a Good Samaritan.
He “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 said.
A second Good Samaritan also helped by putting his weight on the alleged gunman until police arrived.
“They pretty much take over,” Contreras said of the police.
Contreras said “the alleged gunman was wearing a bulky work jacket and hoodie with the hood covering his face.”
Contreras’ daughter, Alyssa Marsh Contreras, was there with her father and two sisters.
She recorded the scene and said she knew something was wrong when people at the parade, including a child, started to “scatter.”
“It wasn’t long after the celebration was all done 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’re at a celebration and I think a lot of people thought it were fireworks because nobody really ran or anything.”
At least one person was killed during Wednesday’s shooting, while many others, including children, were injured.
Police have detained three suspects, but it is not known if the man Contreras tackled is one of them.