One of the alleged gunmen who opened fire during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Superbowl Parade Wednesday was “fighting the whole time” as he was tackled and subdued by a football fan, according to the heroic bystander.
Paul Contreras knocked over the alleged assailant before law enforcement could step in, telling CNN the gunman was rearing up to spar while he was simply reacting as the horrifying deadly shooting — which left one dead and 22 others injured — unfolded before him.
“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 saw the gun on the ground,” Contreras recalled.
Contreras said he and another good Samaritan put all their weight on top of the alleged gunman to try and keep him down as he fought to get away.
“We were fighting each other. He wants to get up while I’m holding him down. Then another guy helps me and then you know, it just seemed like a long time but it’s probably like 15 or 30 seconds,” Contreras recalled.
“He’s just fighting to get up,” he said. “But we’re fighting to keep him down. We didn’t want to let him up and take off running because he had one gun. Maybe he hanother in that big bulky jacket”
Contreras noted that he had not seen the suspect fire the gun, nor did he know he had a weapon on his person until someone had yelled out into the crowd to tackle him.
The man was taken away by police following the struggle, which Contreras said left him in a state of shock, noting he and his three daughters sat at the scene for a moment before heading home.
It’s unclear if the person Contreras tackled was one of three people Kansas City Police said they detained following the shooting.
Trey Filter, of Witchita, Kansas, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that he also heard people yelling to tackle the suspect.
“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 the other good Samaritans “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.”