A Kansas City Chiefs fan who tackled a possible suspect in the shooting of at least 22 people, one fatally, at the team’s victory celebration Wednesday, says he jumped on a man who was being chased by cops to keep his family and others safe.
Paul Contreras was making his way back to his car with his three daughters when he and at least one other man swiftly acted to stop the fleeing man in his tracks, before police arrived to arrest him. Footage of the incident has gone viral on social media.
“It was just a reaction. He was running against [the flow of people] … the wrong way and there was another gentleman screaming out of the top of his lungs, ‘catch this guy, tackle him.'” Contreras told NBC’s “TODAY” Thursday morning.
“I really wasn’t sure until he came running and I had the perfect angle to do what I did. I took him down,” he said.
Contreras said he saw a gun fall away from the man as he tackled him, although he’s not sure if it was being held or fell from a jacket.
“So I’m like OK he’s got one weapon, he may have another [so] I need to take him to the ground and I need to keep him on the ground,” he said.
Officials have not confirmed that the person in the video is in police custody, but said they were aware of and investigating the footage.
“We do have three persons detained and under investigation for today’s incident,” Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference Wednesday. “We are working to determine if one of the three are the one that was in that video, where fans assisted police.”
Video from the aftermath of Contreras and others tackling the man shows police taking someone into custody, and a bystander can be heard saying, “When we tackled him, the gun come out.”
One of Contreras’ daughters, Alyssa Marsh-Contreras, was alongside her dad at the time he tackled the possible suspect. She told “TODAY” that people had assumed the pops they heard were fireworks.
“Not long after we headed on our journey to our car, we heard multiple pops that I think everybody assumed were fireworks until we saw two males running along with multiple cops chasing them, everyone realized those might not have been fireworks,” she said.
She continued: “As soon as people started turning around and running we see the offender and the next thing I know my little sister and my big sister just take off; I turned back around to see my dad jump on top of this offender and make sure he wasn’t able to get up.”
Speaking about the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States Marsh-Contreras said: “It just shows how much gun violence is tearing apart our world and our communities, whether it’s schools, grocery stores, even parades.
“It’s just sad that you have to put things like this in the back of your mind, that there is a chance it could happen.”
The shooting happened outside Union Station in downtown Kansas City around 2 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) at the conclusion of the victory parade and rally celebrating the Chiefs’ overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
About 1 million people had been expected to attend the celebration, and bystanders reported police officers jumping barricades and running to the scene, while other fans fled and yelled about an active shooter.
Officials say they do not believe the motive was terrorism. Graves, the police chief, said “bad actors” caused the chaos and bloodshed, even amid a police presence that included more than 800 law enforcement officers at the event.
Jesse Kirsch reported from Kansas City, Phil Helsel reported from Los Angeles and Patrick Smith reported from London.
