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Omaha man describes moment he tackled Super Bowl parade shooter: ‘You don’t think about it, it’s just a reaction’
“We’re just putting our weight on him, and he’s just fighting to get up, but we’re fighting to keep him down," Paul Contreras said
A man has described the moment he tackled a suspect who allegedly opened fire at a Super Bowl Parade near Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Paul Contreras told various media outlets that he was at the parade with his daughter when he heard someone yelling to stop a gunman.
"You don’t think about it. It’s just a reaction,” Contreras, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska, said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “He got close to me, I got the right angle on him. And when I hit him from behind, I either jarred the gun out of his hand or out of his sleeve. … I see the gun on the ground.”
“I’m putting all my body weight on him, and another Good Samaritan comes over,” he said. “We’re just putting our weight on him, and he’s just fighting to get up, but we’re fighting to keep him down.”
Not just Contreras, but several other brave Kansas City Chiefs fans were seen tackling the shooter. A video shows the gunman springing behind jersey barriers and across the grass toward a group of people celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory shortly after shots were fired at the end of the victory parade.
One man in the crowd, rather than running away with the others, is seen leaping on the suspect and dragging him to the ground. The suspect managed to free himself quickly, but another Chiefs fan tackled him again, desperately trying to keep him shackled.
The first fan is then seen jumping back, and two other bystanders jumped in to help them fight. They held the man back until cops arrived, according to New York Post.
A mother of two children, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, died in the shooting. At least 22 other people, including nine children, were injured in the shooting, it has been reported. Three people were taken into custody, police confirmed. Law enforcement sources said the shooting is not terror-related.
